Jasmina Najjar

Being of the Cedars: an Exploration of Rashid Al-daif's Work Jasmina Najjar

Rashid al-Daif was born in Lebanon in 1945. A university professor, Dr. al-Daif is also the best-selling author in Lebanon and has attracted the world's attention and received international acclaim. Al-Daif's work breaks the boundaries of genre. He is a unique voice merging Arabic and Western literary traditions, combining several contemporary writing trends to create his vision of a chaotic world, resultantly flooded with people with fragmented identities. He is the eccentric, neurotic voice screaming in the wilderness, blurring timelines to depict the angst of the human psyche. His novels are almost plot-less interior monologues highlighting the dominance of subjectivity. His quest is for answers that can't be found, for new tools to describe the ruptured world and new criteria upon which to build a definition of unified, complete identity. Al-Daif is a mirror bearer, encapsulating the contemporary Lebanese experience and zeitgeist. In his world issues of victimisation, oppression, guilt, innocence, truth and identity are like Russian roulette, tricky and complex dilemmas that are high risk and ever changing like the revolving bullet chamber.