TASK NO.

PRESENTED BY PAUL PANIZA OF SECTION O

3

Reading the Reader:

An Interpretation of
"After the Last Sky"
 Brief Overview
a reflective "essay" that resonates within
the Palestinian identity of Edward Said
- examines how dispossession and dispersion
frustrates their search for a Palestinian image and
voice
- recalls the plight of the author and his fellow
Palestinians while living in Exile with accompanying
photographs from Jean Mohr, a European
photographer
- seeks to impart the truth of their unheard
experiences
 #1

How is the reader positioned by

the photographer, Jean Mohr?
- Judging by the photographs, one
could easily imply that there is an
unsettling awkward feeling evoked
by the pictures as if the setting was
naturally mute.

"I look at them without precise

anecdotal knowledge, but their
realistic exactness nevertheless makes
a deeper impression than mere
information."
 - The readers are driven to an alienating
perspective since most of the points of
view taken were from an outsider's
angle.
"Because it is taken from outside Nazareth (in fact,
from Upper Nazareth, a totally Jewish addition to the
town, built on the surrounding hills), the photograph
renders Palestine as 'other."

- One can easily assume that there is

something inherently "wrong" in its
context even without anecdotal
knowledge.
Kalandia (near Ramallah), 1967.
"A few days after the end of the June War: in the
foreground, an Israeli officer, lost in thought.
Behind the window, a young villager."
 #2

How is the reader positioned by

the person in the
scene?
- The subjects photographed by Mohr
are usually facing directly at the
camera lens as if they are deeply
intrigued with the photographer's
intention of taking a picture.
"It speaks in languages not yet fully formed, in
settings not completely constituted, like the shy
glance of a child holding her lather's knee while
she curiously and tentatively examines the
stranger who photographs her."
- From the perspective of the
Palestinians taken in a photograph,
it seems as if they are interrogating
the nature and identity of the
audience (us) as if they are asking
us to explore their experience of life
out there.
"The one thing I know for sure, however, is that they
treated him politely but as someone who came from, or
perhaps acted al the direction of, those who put them
where they so miserably are. There was the
embarrassment of people uncertain why they were
being looked at and recorded. Powerless to stop it."
- Their eyes are usually fixated on
the camera lens as if they are
looking directly at the inescapable
presence of an audience.

"Tel Sheva, 1979.

A group portrait,
taken at the request of the children."
- If a reader would closely examine the "I wonder whether the four people are in
subjects in a series of photographs, one fact connected, or whether as a group they
could easily point out that they are not simply happen to be in the way of unseen
just portrayals of foreign inhabitants but
rather representations of groups of people forces totally indifferent to the dwelling
that we are familiar with such as families, and living space these people inhabit."
neighbors, friends, etc.
 #3

How is the reader positioned by

Edward Said in his
narratives?
- Said's textual narratives can be
thought of as reflections in which
he recounts his past and the
struggles he encountered as a
Palestinian through photographs
that rekindle a memorable event
within his consciousness.
"A zone of recollected pleasure surrounds the few
unchanged spots of Palestinian life in Palestine.
The food sellers and peddlers itinerant vendors of
cakes or corn - are still there for the casual eye to
see, and they still provoke the appetite. "
 - Moreover, it cannot be denied that the
photographs cannot fully capture the
reality it tries to represent. However,
through the narratives we read, we get to
enlighten ourselves with the personal
impression of the author himself.

"But what a distance now actually separates

me from the concreteness of that life. How
easily travel the photographs make it seem,
and how possible to suspend the barriers
keeping me from the scenes they portray."
 "Particularly in fiction, the struggle to
achieve form expresses the writer's efforts to
construct a coherent scene, a narrative that
might overcome the almost metaphysical
impossibility of representing the present."

"The facts of my birth are so distant and strange

as to be about someone I've heard of rather than
someone I know. Nazareth - my mother's town.
Jerusalem - my father's. The pictures I see display
the same produce, presented in the same
carelessly plentiful way, in the same rough
wooden cases."
 Thank you for
taking interest in my
presentation!
References:
- Kauffmann, K. (2017, July 12). "Double Vision": Visual Practice and the Politics of
Representation in Edward W. Said and Jean Mohr's After the Last Sky. Retrieved
October 18, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290634640_Double_Vision_Visual_Practice_a
nd_the_Politics_of_Representation_in_Edward_W_Said_and_Jean_Mohr's_After_the_Last_
Sky.
- Said, E. W., & Mohr, J. (1999). After the last sky: Palestinian lives. Columbia University
Press.
- Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. (1987, July 13). Book review: After the last
sky: Palestinian lives. WRMEA. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from
https://www.wrmea.org/1987-july/book-review-after-the-last-sky-palestinian-lives.html.