Review of Eric CALDERWOOD (2023): On Earth or in Poems, Cambridge, Harvard University Press

Abstract

On Earth or in Poems explores the uses and meanings of Al-Andalus in contemporary culture. Alándalus “resonates”, and his legacy and memory serve very different political and cultural purposes and projects around the world, which have more to do with “the needs of the present than with understanding the past.” Given the complex spatiality and temporality of Alándalus, the almost infinite magma of perceptions and feelings that it generates, Calderwood suggests that the story of Al-Andalus, rather than learning to tolerate difference, is about “learning to tolerate contradiction.”