The world against Gaza: Muin Bseiso and the poetics of remonstration

This article thinks about Gaza, catastrophe, and poetry through reflections on the poetics of the Gaza-born Palestinian writer Muin Tawfiq Bseiso. Bseiso's verse regularly figures in anthologies on modern Palestinian poetry yet little critical attention is paid to his oeuvre. My aim in this article is two-fold. First, I seek to contribute an account of the life, works, and style of Muin Bseiso in order to reclaim him in our conversations on Palestinian poetry. Second, I explore the figurations of Gaza and its relation to the world in his poetry, which fluctuate between expressions of solidarities with Global South societies and revolt against the apathy of liberalized Arab regimes and the coloniality of the liberal global order. The article ends with reflections by way of Bseiso's poetic discourse on the neoliberal world order that provides the conditions of possibility for the genocide that we have been witnessing unfolding in Gaza.