Arboreal Attachment/Detachment

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_9422
dc.title	Arboreal Attachment/Detachment. The Felling of a Lonesome Tree in Muhammad Zafzāf’s “The Sacred Tree”
dc.contributor.author	Marroum Marianne
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/the-venice-journal-of-environmental-humanities/2022/2/arboreal-attachmentdetachment/
dc.description.abstract	This study interprets Muhammad al-Zafzāf’s “The Sacred Tree” in light of a myriad of social, political and religious constructions that surround a sacred tree and its cutting, a decision taken by the government and implemented by workers hired by the authorities. This short story is from the eponymous collection written in 1980 by the late Moroccan writer, one of the most famous Arabic-language novelists, short story writers and poets in Morocco in the 20th century. I hope to shed some light on the interplay between the local and the universal in relation to the sacred and the profane, manifested as the dialectic and yet often incongruent relation between the natural and the sacred as well as the modern and the traditional. The analysis highlights the critical stance the author takes towards the outdated and superstitious beliefs that still take hold of his society, perhaps hoping to bring about some change.
dc.relation.ispartof	Lagoonscapes
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 2 \| Issue 2 \| December 2022
dc.issued	2022-12-15
dc.dateAccepted	2022-10-21
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-06-07
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2785-2709
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2022/04/002
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Change
dc.subject	The political
dc.subject	The profane
dc.subject	The sacred
dc.subject	The sacred tree
dc.subject	The social
dc.subject	The superstitious
dc.subject	Upheaval

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

The Felling of a Lonesome Tree in Muhammad Zafzāf’s “The Sacred Tree”

Marianne Marroum Lebanese American University, Lebanon

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abstract

This study interprets Muhammad al-Zafzāf’s “The Sacred Tree” in light of a myriad of social, political and religious constructions that surround a sacred tree and its cutting, a decision taken by the government and implemented by workers hired by the authorities. This short story is from the eponymous collection written in 1980 by the late Moroccan writer, one of the most famous Arabic-language novelists, short story writers and poets in Morocco in the 20th century. I hope to shed some light on the interplay between the local and the universal in relation to the sacred and the profane, manifested as the dialectic and yet often incongruent relation between the natural and the sacred as well as the modern and the traditional. The analysis highlights the critical stance the author takes towards the outdated and superstitious beliefs that still take hold of his society, perhaps hoping to bring about some change.

Published

Dec. 15, 2022

Accepted

Oct. 21, 2022

Submitted

June 7, 2022

Language

Keywords: The sacred • The profane • Change • Upheaval • The political • The social • The superstitious • The sacred tree

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/LGSP/2785-2709/2022/04/002

Copyright: © 2022 Marianne Marroum. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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