“Iraqis and the Palm Trees. Who Represents Whom?”

Historicized Narratives in Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer

Abstract

Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer narrates Iraq’s political, social, and disastrous events taking place in the last thirty years and concludes by castigating wars and the American invasion of Iraq and their repercussions. There has been a growing body of research and criticism about it, inspired by the novel’s title that overshadows many of its objective observations and aesthetic implications. The work elucidates vital themes and poses important topics; among these exist two pertinent problematics: Iraqi blurred contemporary history and its daunting developments. This paper explores these as described and elaborated by the novelist. Sinan Antoon, the paper further argues, offers a plausible interpretation of recent history of Iraq and synthesizes exuberant reflections, information, and analyses to provide an account that stands against neo-Orientalist discourse propagated in America and across Europe. It begins with the Iran-Iraq War, ends openly with the American occupation, centers on real events, dates, and places, and addresses social, economic, political, and religious parameters fluctuated by wars, sanctions, sectarianism, and belligerence. These details and criticisms echo scholars and pundits who reach similar vitriol Antoon avers. Noam Chomsky, Eric Alterman, and Hal Brands among others point to the sociopolitical ordeals the United States has brought to Iraq. The writer fictionalizes what has been occurring by relaying on poetic language and other literary devices. These Antoon(ian) stylistics and historicization the paper scrutinizes through three sections. After introducing the novelist and the main elements of the work, the second section traces the writer’s thoughts about “Iraqis” in the past; while the third section detects what befalls “Iraqis” in the present.