Reading the Ruins : Repressed Memory and Multiple Identity in the Work of Sélim Nassib

Abstract

This essay analyses the different readings of ruins in Sélim Nassib’s novel “Fou de Beyrouth” (1992), the anthropological, cultural and historical understandings of destroyed buildings, deserted spaces and the Green Line in post-war Beirut – the former demarcation line of Beirut that became a Robinson Crusoe like island where the ‘civilization of war’ can be re-invented and re-experienced afte the war once again. This novel offers a complex spatial reading against repressed memory. The essay also discusses further literary works of Nassib, including “Oum” (1994), “Clandestin” (1998) and “Un amant en Palestine” (2004).