"All writers have tics, a particular repertoire of moves that recur," the novelist Isabella Hammad writes in her new nonfiction book, Recognizing the Stranger. She then identifies her own tic: anagnorisis, the creation of recognition scenes. These are moments when "the world of the text becomes momentarily intelligible to the protagonist and thus also to the audience.... Everything we thought we knew has been turned on its head, and yet it all makes sense." This, for Hammad, is what recognition entails: the unveiling of something long obscured, alongside the realization that perhaps, deep down, one has subconsciously known it all along.
Hammad's discussion at the Palestine Writes Literature Festival about writing from exile fundamentally changed the way many of us view literature's role amid loss and displacement. The fallout from events in Gaza underscored this theme powerfully; her exploration of art and language as tools of resistance became even more pressing, particularly in light of the ongoing violence and loss confronting Palestinian lives.
The epigraph from Mahmoud Darwish in Recognizing the Stranger resonates deeply, emphasizing that Gaza ultimately resists reduction to mere contemplation. Instead, it becomes a powerful context for profound recognition of identity and place, urging us to engage with the emotional and political realities that define the Palestinian experience.
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