ENCW 306: Fall 2018
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
I really enjoyed this story, and the character crafted by Al-Shaykh. The dwarf, as he is referred to throughout the entirety of this story is a very unique and misunderstood man. All he wants is to become a part of the convent, which at first I believe is very honorable and pure of him, but […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
In “I Sweep the Sun off Rooftops,” author Hanan al-Shaykh illustrates the desire of travel for the main character, which is unusual due to where she is from. While the narrative goes on, we learn more about others warning her about life outside Morocco but can infer that she might have made the sacrifice to […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
They were eaten up heart and soul with their love for Christ. This was true love, the like of which he had never found in any novel, translated or otherwise. Never before had he encountered such passion and devotion. Was this what they called sacrifice? The dwarf checked himself. Of course. They had sacrificed the […]
Posted in Poetry on Oct 4th, 2018
Motherland by Leila Chatti What kind of world will we leave __________for our mothers? My mother calls me, weeping. I am __________far and the country she gave me could kill me. Or __________that’s what she’s saying, her voice clumsy with tears—my mother __________who never cries, and so for this, too, apologizes. Sometimes, more __________often, I […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
Hanan al-Shaykh’s “The Keeper of Virgins” centers around an unnamed dwarf narrator who is trying to gain access to a convent. A young woman named Georgette has recently become a member of the convent and the dwarf wants to find her, which is why he is so fixated on joining it. It is implied that […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
This story first appealed to me because of its simplicity, but my interest in it deepened as I took notice of some of its deeper elements. “The dwarf,” as the protagonist is called, appears to be a simple character. His one desire at the beginning of the story is to enter the convent, which has […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 4th, 2018
“I didn’t chew my fingers with regret at giving him my virginity, furious at my weakness in lying down for him, and taking this boy in my arms just because he was English, a citizen of that great nation which had once ruled half the globe; nor did I blame myself for having clung to […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 3rd, 2018
In “The Keeper of the Virgins” and “I Swept the Sun off Rooftops,” Hanan al-Shaykh deals with the outsider. Both of these characters are either outsiders in a different country or outsiders in their own culture. In “The Keeper of Virgins,” the dwarf believes he does not belong anywhere but the convent where he spends […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 3rd, 2018
In her “The Keeping of the Virgins”, Hanan Al-Shaykh uses language beautifully to immerse the reader into the story. There are many lovely descriptions in this body of work, both in rhythm and imagery. “They had grown used to seeing him every morning shortly after they set to work, bending over the hibiscus bushes to […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 3rd, 2018
After eating a piece of chicken dipped in cumin and saffron, which he seemed to have liked, he asked me where I came from. I told him and it was as if I’d opened Heaven’s door. His face softened, his pupils grew bigger, and his irises went deep green like olive oil. Enthusiastically he told […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 2nd, 2018
Due Monday, October 8, at midnight: Five stanzas or five paragraphs, in this order:
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 1st, 2018
Throughout this story, the process of connection and separation serves as a key theme. We see this in the distance between Shoba and Shukumar at the beginning and then their slowly growing closer to each other only to separate again when Shoba tells Shukumar that she is leaving him. I do think that the way she tells him she is […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Oct 1st, 2018
“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri is about a couple dealing with the aftermath of the stillbirth of their son. After his death, Shoba and Shukumar find it harder and harder to maintain their relationship, hardly talking except in the safety of a darkened room. At the end of the story, we find out that Shoba […]
Posted in Poetry on Oct 1st, 2018
Persistence of Vision: Televised Confession by Solmaz Sharif You are like a daughter to me—the prisoner’s mother tells me. Meal by meal she sets then clears. She rinses some tablewear the prisoner never held, then a glass she did, then recalls her daughter’s mouth opening softly to drink water on state- run TV, then water […]