Nationalist poetry, conflict and meta-linguistic discourse

This chapter discusses the role of poetry in identity formation and nation building in the Arab-speaking world. Western theories of nationalism treat the novel as the locus of national narratives. The chapter argues that this view is Western-centric and that, in the Arab context, poetry plays that role more than the novel. It further discusses some Arabic poetry, and the Arab diaspora, mahjar, in which poetry, as a meta-linguistic discourse reflects on the role of language as a primary marker of Arab identity and emphasises its role in superseding ethnic tensions in the Arab body politic.