In the shadow-imagination: a brief literary history of Syrian poetry of witness

This article argues that when poetic practice in Syria turned to a register of modernity, many of its idioms darkened to a poetics of trauma and catastrophe. By highlighting a Syrian manifesto for the poetics of catastrophe and taking two poets who stylistically stand at polar opposites, I aim to show the diversity of forms in which Syrian witness poetry came into being and set it in a larger framework of efforts to anthologise and globalise twentieth century poetry from sites of violent political conflict. In doing so, I also trace the literary historical trajectories that informed its making in Syria and continued to steer its course well after 2011. Aside from original poetry, the ecosystem of the culture of catastrophe includes critical discourse, novels, cinema, media products, and literary translation. I will address some, not all, of the elements in this repertoire as they relate to poetic production.