March 30, 2015

World Literature Manifesto

Reclaiming a Space for Palestinian Women in World Literature
By: Arezu R, Rita S, Chantelle S, Franseza P
We, women, of diverse backgrounds, religions and ages; we women, producers and
consumers of literatures of the world; we women, wish to redeem a space for our
Palestinian sisters in the field of World Literature today.
Whereas, world literature was conceived to maintain a cosmopolitan character to the
production and consumption of literature around the world; Whereas, world literature was
conceived to be an approach to reading these literatures that promotes equality and
freedom of expression; Whereas, world literature was conceived to create an equal
platform for all literatures in all languages.
However, world literature has not escaped the global hierarchies of power, influence and
domination; However, Western hegemony remains the driving force within this platform;
However, all literatures must be assimilated to satisfy this hegemony in order to be
granted entry into this platform; However, world literature cannot escape the capitalist
machine and its patriarchal confluences; However, world literature is not equal, it is
discriminatory, and it must be questioned.
Therefore, we women of the world propose a new account of World Literature that
appreciates and includes all forms of self-narration, including but not limited to the novel,
the poem, the image, the sound, the smell, the touch and the taste; Therefore, World
Literature will be opened and its producers will be liberated; Therefore, hegemonies will
be broken, at least in Form.
Whereas, Women of the world are said to be equal to men in all elements of their lives;
Whereas, Women of the world are said to be no less constrained in their production or
consumption of literature or creative products; Whereas, women are claimed to have
equal access to the law and their rights within it in the local and global arena.
However, women are adversely impacted by the neoliberal model and its capitalist
system which exploit their labour and abuse their basic, fundamental Human Rights and
dominate all societies and lives; However, women are not unified as equals but are rather
divided amongst themselves by sexual preference, race, class, ability, and age; However,
women outside of the West undergo dual subjugation relating to their inferior economic
status in the increasingly globalized market; However, womens intellectual lives and
their choices are not made in earnest, or freely; However, womens creativity is not
circulated in earnest, or freely, but rather according to the very politics that subsume
women themselves.
Therefore, the new space of World Literature that we advance will be independent of
these models; Therefore, women who produce and consume literature will be free to do
so without concern or limitation imposed by the capitalist global market and its

patriarchal commitments; Therefore, the new space will provide funds for these women if
requested; Therefore, the new space will run on the donations of anyone and everyone
who aligns with this cause; Therefore, the women in the space will have the opportunity
in a safe and protected space to pool their own money and distribute it amongst each
other; Therefore, any and all translations of their works will be chosen by the author for
the author, not for the satisfaction of income needs or the readerships expectations;
Therefore, translation will take on a new form that is free to explore any means possible
to express the feelings of the work, According to the women, for the women.
Whereas, Palestinian women are considered as women of the world; Whereas, Palestinian
women are said to benefit from the same rights and entitlements of women producers and
consumers of literature around the world; Whereas, the concerns of Palestinian women
are said to be understood by all women of the world in their literary exchanges, which
occur freely and without limitation; Whereas, it is assumed that Palestinian women
experience the oppression of patriarchy and colonialism in the same way all women of
the world do.
However, the publication and circulation of Palestinian womens writing is contingent on
the degree to which her art fits and reproduces the Orientalist discourse; However,
Palestinian womens literature must fit the expectations of Western audiences if her work
is to be visible and is perpetually disregarded and silenced for challenging the status quo;
However, Palestinian women are not understood by or spoken for women of the world;
However, Palestinian women are not only experiencing patriarchy and colonialism but
the absence of a nation and a life under siege; However, Palestinian women are tokenized
and endure their bodies being objectified and raped as the homeland is objectified and
raped; However, as a result of this ongoing oppression and stigmatization, Palestinian
women disproportionately bear on their shoulders the burdens of loss, suffering and exile.
However, Palestinian women have a particular inherited status due to the nature of their
condition as exiles and colonized people, who have lost touch with their land, sense of
nationhood and identity, and their cultural heritage which has been re-appropriated and
stolen by the Israeli colonial power.
However, Palestinians in general and women in particular suffer from a lack of
legitimacy and support from the international community, which is actively complicit in
the violation of their Human Rights, and literature is the only alternative and available
platform for them to exist and express themselves freely.
Therefore, as authors of the world, who are already subordinated to Orientalist tropes in
world literature; as women of the world, who are disenfranchised, oppressed by different
forms of patriarchy; as Palestinians, who are allowed no identity but their literary
expression; Palestinian women authors DESERVE a space in which they can express
themselves, their identities, their imagination, their nation, their fear, their strength in
any way they feel they must. Palestinian women must be able to write without worrying
who will buy their words, which shape they should come in, if they should be words at
all.

Therefore, this manifesto proposes a space for Palestinian Women in World Literature, a
space that exists outside of the capitalist machine and the patriarchy it re-enforces,
outside of the oppression that those who are not Palestinian cannot understand; a space
where Palestinian women no longer struggle to be understood, a space where Palestinian
women can belong, a space called home, a space called nation.
Therefore, this space will give Palestinian women the power to narrate, to define
themselves, their histories, their bodies, and their minds in a way that World Literature
does not allow them to. This space will not be contrasted, studied, examined; it will be
watched and appreciated, it will be free to be as it is, as the women want it to be.
Only here will Palestinian women truly be of the world that Literature creates for itself.