ST: I think Syrian prison literature shares many traits with writings about prison from within the region and more globally. In many memoirs and novels, as Barbara Harlow and other scholars have pointed out, there is a conventional tripartite structure to narratives about prison: 1) arrest/interrogation, 2) long-term detention, 3) release. Additionally, narratives about prison tend towards the representation of a collective rather than solely an individual experience. Syrian and Arabic prison literature is unique in that it is tied to the specific phenomena of political detention, and more recently, some, including Ghassan al-Jaba‘i, have argued for the use of the term “adab al-mu‘taqal” instead of “adab al-sujun” because these texts are primarily written from or about the point of view of prisoners of conscience. The terms “prison literature” and “prison writing” are themselves highly problematic. With respect to Syrian and Arabic prison literature, there is also a unique link between a general movement towards literary experimentalism and writings about the experience of detention.
TM: What connections are there between human rights reportage and prison literature – how do they complement each other and in what way are the memoirs and novels a way for helping human rights advocates to work on specific cases?
ST: It really depends on the specific text and form: fiction vs. nonfiction, poetry, prose, or drama. It’s easiest to trace the connections between prose nonfictional memoirs or narratives and human rights reportage. For example, there is the simple fact of both genres frequently offering eye-witness testimony and the use of the first person in recounting what has been seen, heard, or experienced. I think some readers may find works of prison literature, memoirs, novels, short stories, plays, poetry, more accessible and approachable, rendering the experiences of Syrian detainees more personal or individual, rather than just part of a series of statistics. Some human rights organizations, such as the Syrian Human Rights Committee, have made works of prison literature, particularly memoirs, part of their online libraries that are accessible to a wider public. The publication of works of literature, about prison or other subjects, can assist and has actually assisted international campaigns for the release of individual detainees.
Print
Tugrul Mende | Radio Free (2021-01-05T23:00:00+00:00) Syrian prison literature and human rights: an interview with Shareah Taleghani. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/01/05/syrian-prison-literature-and-human-rights-an-interview-with-shareah-taleghani/
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