Sulayman Al-Bassam’s The Al Hamlet Summit: normalisation and Arab treacherous politics

ABSTRACT

Al-Bassam’s The Al Hamlet Summit (2006), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603), presents a cynical comment on the political corruption in the Arab World and it constitutes from a presentist perspective, we argue, an anachronistic critique of some Arab leaders’ lapse into normalisation with the long-standing Other, the Israeli occupation. Al-Bassam captures the political corruption and Arab leaders’ liaison with Israel through the figure of Claudius, who, like Arab leaders, normalises relations with the enemies of his nation, Fortinbras and the Arms Dealer. Many Arab leaders are normalising relations with Israel as a defensive mechanism against their citizens who have been protesting against dictatorial and tyrannical regimes that have conceived rottenness and corruption in the political and spiritual foundations of the states. While the waves of normalisation that have plagued the contemporary Arab scene raise the spectre of Western hegemony over Arabs, being channelled by the Trump Administration, many Arab leaders hurl to the strategy of normalisation ‘pants down’ so as to curb their citizens prospective revolutionary acts.

KEYWORDS:

• Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• Al Bassam’s The Al Hamlet Summit
• normalisation
• Palestine
• contemporary Arab politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bilal Hamamra

Bilal Hamamra has a PhD in Early Modern Drama from the University of Lancaster, UK and works currently as an associate professor of English Literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine. His research interests are in Early Modern Drama, Shakespeare, Women's Writings, Gender Studies, Palestinian Studies and Pedagogy. His articles on language, gender politics, onomastics, philosophy of education, martyrdom and diaspora have appeared in Early Modern Literary Studies, Critical Survey, ANQ, Journal for Cultural Research, Journal of Gender Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Anglia, Psychodynamic Practice, The Explicator, Comparative Literature: East & West, Middle East Critique, Interventions, Social Identities, International Studies in Sociology of Education, English: Journal of the English Association, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Social Identities, and Changing English, among others.

Ayman Mleitat

Ayman Mleitat has a bachelor degree in English language and literature from Al-Najah National University, Palestine and is a student in MA program of Comparative Literature at Al-Najah National University, Palestine, and works currently as an English teacher at one of UNRWA’s schools in Nablus. His research interests are in Gender Studies, Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies.

Abdel Karim Daragmeh​

Abdel Karim Daragmeh has a PhD in modern and contemporary literature and literary theory from Southern Illinois University, Illinois, USA; Associate professor of modern and contemporary literature at the English Department, An-Najah National University; co-founder of the American Studies; director of the Master's program in comparative literature; director of The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; Author of research on African, Arab and American contemporary literatures, translation studies, and faculty professional development program.