Resultados del pre-test y post-test

The Fallouts of the Pains of the Player with Golden Feet and Head Adil al-Qassas

[Examiners: To encourage freedom of interpretation it is suggested the novella be read first, after reading the thesis abstract contained in this volume]

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

College of Arts

Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia 2015

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Thesis Abstract

This thesis consists of two parts. Both parts navigate the experience of displacement, in both realist and metaphorical modes, of a number of Sudanese expatriates to Australia. The first part, a fictional account in the form of a novella, employs different points of view to explore a range of diasporic encounters undergone by diverse Sudanese

migrants and refugees prior to and during resettlement in Australia. Taking the events of the author’s life as its focus, the second part delves into narratives of personal, inner displacement that have deep roots in the history of Sudan and the question of a common national identity.

The exegesis also examines the dynamics of his dualistic relationship with the Sudanese communities in Australia while sharing many of the same challenges and crises. His perspective, which can be understood in different ways as being partly inside and partly outside in relation to those communities and the wider Australian community, provides a position from which to view a series of Otherings and exclusions that challenge and displace identity while also contributing to the ‘forming’ of it.

The novella, centred on a café in an inner suburb of Melbourne, portrays different responses, narrated in the protagonists own voices, to a conflict that erupts from a simple remark to which a renowned retired Sudanese football (soccer) player takes offence. Their responses, revealed to the narrator in private, allow the reader to listen to the diversity of personal histories and views that are able to exist and collide within larger national and postcolonial histories, the signs of which act in unexpected ways.

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“I, Adil al-Qassas, declare that the PhD thesis entitled ‘Displace or Be Displaced:

Narratives of Multiple Exile in the Sudanese Communities in Australia’ is no more than 100,000 words in length including quotes and exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work”.

iii I’m one of you. A wanderer,

singing in one tongue, praying in another

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Dedication

To the memory of my father, a poor farmer, whose wealthy heart and hands believed in land.

To my mother, an illiterate woman, who believes in educational advancement, and who spared no effort to enable us, her children, to get the maximum from it.

To my elder brother, Sayyid, who saved no strength to make decisive change in our family’s past impoverished reality.

To Mohamed Mahmoud and Abd Allah Bola, Sudanese scholars and friends, whose ongoing support and trust in my creative and intellectual capacity, has been a great source of aspiration and inspiration.

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Acknowledgements

I would not have reached this stage of educational advancement without the crucial encouragement and support of my previous teacher and supervisor, Dr Russell Wright: Firstly, for his acknowledgement of my creative, cultural and journalistic

contributions—within a cultural and linguistic context other than English—and his support for my application for a Victoria University Postgraduate Research Scholarship to carry out a Masters of Social Sciences. Secondly, I thank Dr Wright for becoming my first principal supervisor for the Masters. Thirdly, I thank Dr Wright for nominating Dr Leslie Terry to replace him in supervising me when he decided (for personal and health reasons) to quit his formal position at the University. Fourthly, for he accepted to be my co-supervisor when Dr Terry became the principal supervisor. Fifthly, for the support he and his wife, Dr Regina Quiazon, provided to me and my little family throughout a significant stage of my postgraduate study journey.

I would also not inhabit this phase of scholastic progression—which had significantly been expressed in the conversion of my thesis, in the initial stage, from a Masters to a PhD—without the vital support of my former principal supervisor Dr Leslie Terry. Before and after that, Dr Terry had also been of tremendous and complex assistance. Professionally, he helped me navigate a range of methodological possibilities through which my academic endeavour could be explored. He opened my mind to a wide range of resources which have been of invaluable academic and intellectual benefit. He also strengthened my relationship with an outstanding scholar and academic, Dr Mark Stevenson, who would become my co-supervisor, and later on my principal supervisor, after Dr Terry took up a position at another university. Creatively, as a novelist, Dr Terry stimulated my creative writing skills and emboldened me to deploy them in my academic project. Personally, he, his wife, Annabel Wilson, and other members of his family, including his daughter and her boyfriend, provided me and my little family with generous support.

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My thesis would have lacked key insights and defining dimensions without the genuine enthusiasm to the project, the benevolent systematic professional and priceless

discussions and the enriching suggestions of readings from Dr Stevenson. It is worthy to note that when Dr Stevenson welcomed supervising me, I had been going through a stressful time with respect to my study as well as family issues in Australia and

overseas. His enthusiasm and support has played crucial multidimensional role that has helped me overcoming such a difficult period. Our discussions have not only been a motivating platform for developing my thesis but they have also been playing a uniquely informative and stimulating cultural, and even therapeutic, role, beyond the thesis. In addition to the professional and culturally sensitive editing of the thesis, Dr Stevenson has also bestowed upon me and my little family sincere and open-handed social and cultural backing. I am, therefore, so indebted to him.

There have as well been supportive contributions that have been of central help to my project from a wide range of friends inside and outside Australia.

Of these friends, who are overseas, there is Dr Mohamed Mahmoud, who works in the area of the critique of religion, with special reference to Islam, a former associate professor of religion at Tufts University in the USA and founder and director of the UK- based Centre for Critical Studies of Religion. Dr Mahmoud has provided me with ongoing support throughout most of my diaspora, including helping me gain a Victoria University Postgraduate Research Scholarship award that enabled me to undertake this academic project. He also advised me on and offered practical assistance with

transliteration associated with my thesis.

There is Dr Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim, a prominent Sudanese writer, a leading scholar in areas of weighty pertinence to ‘Sudanese identity’, an emeritus professor at the Department of History at the University of Missouri in the USA. Dr Ibrahim has provided me with historical and contemporary resources, in addition to insightful discussion and suggestions, all of whom have been of great significance to my project. There is Ibrahim Jaffer, a Sudanese poet, short story and novel writer, critic,

professional translator and a former lecturer of philosophy at the University of Khartoum. Jaffer, who currently lives and works in the UK, was the translator of my Novella from Arabic to English. There is Adil Osman, a Sudanese professional translator in the UK, and a member of the Democratic Forum of the Sudanese Society

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for Research in Arts and the Humanities. Mr Osman helped me with searching for and locating significant Arabic references. He also assisted me with the translation of a personal reflection on my creative/cultural relationship/tension with the Arabic/English languages which originally written in Arabic for the Democratic Forum of the Sudanese Society for Research in Arts and the Humanities. There is Hafiz Kheir, a Sudanese poet and broadcast journalist, who now lives and works in Washington D.C., who helped with translating an excerpt of an interview originally conducted with me in Arabic. There is Muhammad Khalaf Allah Sulaiman, a Sudanese short story writer and novelist who presently lives in Sudan, who sought out a number of works in Arabic I needed. There is Mustafa Adam, a professional translator, who currently works and lives in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, who translated to English a pivotal Sudanese poem, from which I borrowed a verse to serve as a prefix to the Exegesis. There is Dr Aidan Moore, a former colleague in the Postgraduate Work Station in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology of Victoria University. Dr Moore, now in Ireland, has spared no effort in his encouragement of my project including correction for the Novella. Appreciation also to Dr Ali Hapsah, a former colleague in the Postgraduate Work Station in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology of Victoria University,

now returned to Indonesia, for his technical assistance.Similarly, my thankfulness to

Rukn al-Din Yonis, an Iraqi poet and friend, who provided me with important information about two Iraqi short story writers.

Phillip Moore, a former manager of Concurrent Assistance and the Study Lab at Victoria University, not only offered me and my family English Language support, but also a great deal of culturally and socially sensitive backing, to which his wife Cathy Thomas also contributed. In addition to his close following up with me on the progress of my thesis, and the initial editing of two early chapters of the Exegesis as well as corrections and suggestions for the Novella, Phillip recently provided me with some critical insights and suggestions some of which convinced me to make a significant change to one of the Novella’s ideas. There is also Bruno Lettieri, a former teacher at the department of Professional Writing and Editing TAFE as well as a teacher in the Study Lab of Victoria University. Mr Lettieri has also been closely following up with me the development of my academic project; and he has been a continuing source of professional, cultural and socially sensitive and multifaceted support for me and my family.

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There is my former TAFE teacher at Victoria University, Anne Attard, and her husband, Maurice Fowler, who have provided me and my family with multidimensional constant support from that learning stage to the current learning. There is Jose Ramos, my former teacher of Research during my undergraduate study at Victoria University. Jose Ramos, and his wife, De Chantal Hillis, have been sympathetic and supportive for me and my family. There is Abd al-Raman Hassan, an old Eritrean-Sudanese friend whose rich social and cultural experience, within the Eritrean and Sudanese communities, and beyond them, in Australia, as well as his reflections and insights on issues that later became pertinent to some aspects of my thesis, have inspired a defining element of it. I am grateful to the Victoria University Graduate Research Centre, in particular Dr Lesley Birch, Senior Coordinator of Admissions and Scholarships, and Grace Schirripa, college support officer, for their ongoing support and understanding throughout all phases of my postgraduate study.

My gratitude also to Mahjub Dirar, Yosif Diri', Lyn Hannah, Zoe Krupka, Marg Lesser, Ahmad Sayyid, Tedros Girmai Tasfo, Abd al-Aziz Marir and Abd al-Rahim Jimi', Felicity Reynolds, Tammy Barker, Maree Jones, Amy Sinclair, Osman Hamid, Muhammad Khalaf Allah Abd Allah, Ahmad Adam and Darir Muhammad for encouraging me to arrive at the end of this journey. I am also appreciative of my colleagues in the Postgraduate Work Station in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology of Victoria University, for their support.

Lastly, but not least, I am so grateful to Limya Eisa, my wife, and my two children, Safiya and Wereefa. Limya for her continuing patience, understanding and the diverse support she has been bestowing upon me through all the stages of study at Victoria University; and Safiya and Wereefa for their pure and genuine love which has been emotionally supportive and also inspiring.

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