Summer Mohrmann

Threading the Needle: Tatreez, Trade, Tales and Talk in Anglophonic, Women’s

Literature of the Arab Diaspora

Penelope weaving by day and unraveling by night, Arachne’s metamorphosis, Emare’s cloak— the embroidery metaphor overcomes borders to permeate our transnational memories and cultural milieus. Foundational texts of both Western and global canon time and again turn to weaving as metaphor. For Arabs, tatreez (تَطْر ِ يز; literally embroidery, specifically a form of Palestinian and Levantine traditional embroidery) is often evoked in text by authors and their protagonists; in recent literature, this theme is frequently called upon by second and third generation children of the diaspora (authors and protagonists alike) as they search out connective threads of lost/preserved culture.

Susan Muaddi Darraj and Laila Halaby do just this work in their respective novels, TheInheritance of Exile: Stories from South Philly and West of the Jordan. I argue that the tatreez metaphor presented in both texts directs attention to distinctly material productions of identity and culture diegetically. This extends to the books themselves, their authors, and the hybrid experiences that undergird them.

The characters looking upon and working to create these different material productions—such as embroidery or woven baskets— are constantly working not only to produce material crafts, but in doing so link the narrative eye with the narrative “I.” By prompting consideration of not only the tactility but visuality of tatreez and its rich semiotic history, these works direct our attention toward other visual aspects of the texts, and create the groundwork for a formalist consideration of the material novels themselves as tapestries wherein voices, experiences, and memories are not only woven intricately amongst each other, but create democratic discursive communities. These communities are founded on the even distribution of (narrative) power, creating a space wherein all voices have equal value, and where memories (and therefore futures) are not only preserved but protected, imagined, mediated, reproduced, and rewritten.