Stone of Laughter – Hoda Barakat

Résumé du document

Many have undertaken the task of writing in the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Among them, a few female Lebanese authors have attempted to recount their own experience of the war through fiction. The most renowned are Hanan el Sheykh with her novel Hikayat Zahra and Hoda Barakat, notably with the Stone of Laughter, which, according to its author, served the purpose of "reclaiming with words what bombs took away". In one interview, Barakat declared that "in the novel [she] gave back the names to streets that no longer existed: for the beauty of remembering their names".

Barakat uses several mechanisms and metaphorical devices to both state the extent of the Lebanese' denial of the events and then counteract it, by forcing the Lebanese society to attempt remembrance and long-avoided debate. The novel allows for broader observation of how the Lebanese remember and commemorate the conflict, and of whether there are initiatives towards acceptation and reconciliation as seen in South Africa with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The results of an observation of the Lebanese artistic, political and architectural landscape are ambiguous, as private initiatives attempt to replace official reconciliation and commemoration projects which are lacking today in Lebanon.

Extraits

[...] Stone of Laughter is her first novel and was only published in 1990, at the end of the war. Stone of Laughter tells the story of Khalil, a homosexual Beiruti who lives in a Christian neigborhood of the capital (most likely Achrafieh, on the East side of the Green Line that parted Beirut) during the civil war. From the very beginning of the novel, Barakat describes Khalil as a feminine character, an aspect of his personality which is reflected in his daily activities and hobbies: cooking, cleaning, knitting and chores, which traditionally are part of women's obligations in the Lebanese patriarchal society. [...]

[...] This is a void that can be filled by arts, and especially literature, as in the case of Hoda Barakat's work, which is, in its own way, a literary monument commemorating the war. Sources Azem, I. (2007). As if the people had no memory. Retrieved April from Qantara, Dialogue with the Islamic world. Website: http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-402/i.html Fisk, R. (1995). Tribute to peace, or plain tank sandwich?. Retrieved April from The Independent World. [...]

[...] One chapter ends with a cliffhanger: Naji is dead The readership would expect the following chapter to detail the circumstances of this major incident; instead, the first lines of the next chapter are the following: it was a really festive day at the newspaper (p6). In the next chapter, it is mentioned that everything Khalil during that month was ( . ) confused, if persistent, attempts to forget that Naji had been killed (p.47). This denial of a personal tragedy symbolizes the larger scale Lebanese denial of the war. Khalil loses yet another lover with the passing of Youssef soon thereafter in the novel. [...]

[...] Such is Hoda Barakat's endeavor in this novel, and also that of many Lebanese authors and visual artists. In 2003, a series of books by Joseph Chami entitled the Lebanon Memorial were published, including one volume called the War Memorial, providing the Lebanese and international readership with a profusion of previously unavailable accurate facts about the war . It is a perfect example of an individual initiative to remember and commemorate the Lebanese Civil War; its impartiality singles it out of the myriad of propaganda-related books published yearly about the conflict and the Lebanese political turmoil; however, the Mémorial du Liban's publication has gone almost unnoticed in the public. [...]

[...] Stone of Laughter Hoda Barakat Many have undertaken the task of writing in the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Among them, a few female Lebanese authors have attempted to recount their own experience of the war through fiction. The most renowned are Hanan el Sheykh with her novel Hikayat Zahra and Hoda Barakat, notably with the Stone of Laughter, which, according to its author, served the purpose of reclaiming with words what ( . ) bombs took away In one interview, Barakat declared that in the novel [she] gave back the names to streets that no longer existed: for the beauty of remembering their names Barakat uses several mechanisms and metaphorical devices to both state the extent of the Lebanese' denial of the events and then counteract it, by forcing the Lebanese society to attempt remembrance and long-avoided debate. [...]