“Costruiscimi una casa difficile, dolente”. Ramsey Nasr, poeta laureato d’Olanda (2009-2013)

Abstract

In this article I analyse the evolution of Ramsey Nasr (Rotterdam 1974) from neo-romantic to committed “political” poet. I particularly focus on the way he positioned himself, poetically and mediatically, during the years 2009-2013 – a period of economic crisis and social and political unrest – in his capacity of Poet Laureate of The Netherlands, a highly symbolic function. Supposed to represent the “nation”, in public lectures/performances he fully engaged in the polarised debate around the boundaries of historical and contemporary Dutchness. Being self half-allochtonous (Dutch-Palestinian) with a transcultural background, in his poetry he performed a multiple, plural, instable personal and collective identity, questioning any essentialistic and seemingly stable definition of the Dutch cultural identity, as of any other identity construction: the Christian, the Calvinist, the European etc. Nasr did not hesitate to provoke the political establishment, by topicalizing and investigating traumas in Dutch history and in contemporary society (Holocaust, multiculturalism and integration of Muslim migrants, Israeli-Palestinian conflict etc). Instead of erasing these traumas from collective memory, or turning them into museum-pieces, he stated the necessity for everyone to meditate on them in new, daring, hybridized forms.