© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/157006410X486756 Journal of Arabic Literature 41 (2010) 108-120 brill.nl/jal Disorientation and the Metropolis in Hudā Barakāt’s Ḥ ārith al-miyāh Dina Amin Villanova University Abstract In Ḥ ārith al-miyāh (e Tiller of Waters, 1998) Hudā Barakāt departs from traditional war nar- ratives to unravel the horrors of war by depicting a protagonist whose life is reduced to an ani- mal-like existence and whose relationship with space and time disorients both him and the reader. To preserve knowledge of his self, and to safeguard his homeland from complete annihi- lation, he reconstructs its history by telling stories to his beloved about Lebanon’s textiles indus- try. rough this alternative national ‘history,’ he tries to re-orient himself with (and within) his metropolis as it becomes a war-ravished wasteland. As he recreates his nation through oral nar- ration, he also reintegrates its (now) scattered and conflicting communities as he recalls them into his narratives. is essay argues that the knowledge of history challenges disorientation and can become a means by which to defend the metropolis from erasure. Keywords Hudā Barakāt; war; disorientation; metropolis; history; Lebanon No man is an Iland, entire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee John Donne, Meditation XVII In Ḥ ārith al-miyāh (e Tiller of Waters, 1998), Hudā Barakāt departs from traditional war narratives to unravel the horrors of warfare through the por- trayal of a protagonist whose life is reduced to an animal-like existence and where his relationship with space and time disorients both him and the reader. To maintain the memory of his homeland and to preserve his city as well as his own identity from complete annihilation, he reconstructs their history by telling stories about Lebanon’s textile industry to his beloved. His narratives connect past time and space with the present, and underscore