Acorn

Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: Arts and Leisure

Media Credit: Charlotte Hammond

Curious students with open ears filled Learning Center room 28 on Tuesday to hear Iraqi author, playwright, filmmaker and current New York University Professor Sinan Antoon give a lecture on his novel, "I'Jaam."

Fidele Harfouche ('08), senior president of MESA, said the club sponsored the lecture because they wished "to expose Drew University to Arab-American literature…that deconstructs a media-fabricated reality."

Antoon's "I'Jaam" is a critically acclaimed novel about a prisoner's experiences in Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the 1980s.

After being introduced by Harfouche, Antoon opened his lecture by providing a background of Iraq's history.

He spoke of what it was like for writers living under Hussein's regime. Antoon explained that these conditions-being forced to write propaganda or remain silent-shaped him into the writer he is today.

Antoon then jokingly apologized for his "boring lecture," and proceeded to read excerpts from his work.

The parts he chose to read from the book were filled with intensity and fear, while other scenes included humor, especially after Antoon explained Arabic puns.

He later described his novel as "fragmented." When writing about such accounts, an author must "shatter the picture and look at it again," he said.

After concluding his reading, Antoon spent the remainder of his time answering audience questions with insight and humor.

Many of these questions were from students whom were assigned his book for their Arabic literature class, taught by Arabic Lecturer Gretchen Head.

One of the questions Antoon was asked was whether or not his novel was autobiographical.

He explained that the novel was not based on his own life.

However, there were many parts of "I'Jaam" that he drew from his own experiences.

"Writers have to use their imagination and write about others' plights," he said.

Antoon was asked about his experiences growing up in Iraq in a Christian family.

He said that although his family was not persecuted for their religious beliefs, contrary to a common perception, they "felt different, like minorities elsewhere."

Students asked him about his opinions on the current state of Iraq. Antoon, who objected to the Iraq War from the onset, vehemently condemned the use of violence and the justifications for the war.

Antoon then recited one his poems about war in English and then Arabic, at the request of several students.

Continued...

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