A review by ps_stillreading
Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad

informative reflective

5.0

 As readers, I think we all appreciate the big “Aha!” moment in books, the moment of recognition, when all the threads come together, when all the pieces fall to place, the big reveal that makes us see the whole picture clear as day. These recognition scenes in fictional narratives are called anagnorisis, defined by Aristotle as “a movement from ignorance to knowledge,” expounded by Isabella Hammad here as “the moment when the truth of the matter dawns on a character, that moment toward which a plot usually barrels, and around which a story’s mystery resolves.” 

Hammad states that as a writer, she is particularly drawn to these scenes, exploring them in her works. But in this essay, which was originally from her lecture for the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture, she brings this concept of anagnorisis beyond fictional narrative and connects it to the Palestinian cause.

Recognition is the very core of anagnorisis, but in many ways, Hammad tells us this is also the core of the Palestinian cause. Recognition. That Palestinians deserve recognition as human beings, not “human animals” or “collateral damage.” To be recognized as a state, as a people who deserve to live freely and thrive in their homeland. 

Many of us now have arrived at this place of recognition, especially with all the images and stories coming out of Gaza. But Hammad writes, “It’s one thing to see shifts on an individual level, but quite another to see them on an institutional or governmental one. To induce a person’s change of heart is different from challenging the tremendous force of collective denial.” There is a need to act, a need to move beyond simple recognition. 

Hammad delivered this lecture nine days before October 7, 2023. This book includes an afterword she wrote in January 2024. In it, she writes, “It is simultaneously true that the Nakba of 1948 never really ended, and that we are currently watching it being repeated…I wonder what reality you now live in. From the point in time at which you read this, what do you say of the moment I am in? How large is the gulf between us?”

How do we answer?

This short book was deeply moving, and I encourage everyone to read this. Many, many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for this e-ARC. Recognizing the Stranger by Isabella Hammad will be out on September 24, 2024