Ouachita professor Raouf Halaby presents at Hemingway conference in Venice
June 30, 2014 - Brooke Zimny
Dr. Raouf Halaby, seen here with Valerie Hemingway, daughter-in-law of Ernest Hemingway, attended the 2014 Hemingway Conference in Venice, Italy.
Ouachita Baptist University professor Dr. Raouf J. Halaby presented a paper at the
16th biennial international conference of The Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society.
The conference was held at Venice International University in Venice, Italy, June
22-27.
The six-day conference drew more than 400 participants from 15 countries. Halaby,
professor of Art and Design and English, presented his paper, “The Theme of the Quest:
Gilgamesh and Enkidu as Prototypes for Hemingway’s Robert Jordan, Frederic Henry,
and Santiago,” as part of a panel on “Hemingway: Trauma, Memory, Geography, and the
Quest.”
“Drawing on Joseph Campbell’s notions on the cycle of the monomyth, the paper draws
on the ancient Mesopotamian epic poem The Epic of Gilgamesh and draws parallels between Gilgamesh and his alter-ego, Enkidu, and the three protagonists
in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea,” Halaby said. “Drawing on the archetypal pattern, the paper compares the theme of
the quest in these works.”
Halaby has served on faculty at Ouachita for more than 40 years. He earned his bachelor’s
degree at Ouachita and his master’s and doctorate degrees from East Texas State University.
Like many authors, artists and musicians, Venice was one of Hemingway’s favorite cities.
Conference attendees not only participated in academic sessions related to the author
and his works but also explored the area that was influential in his life. For example,
Halaby joined a one-day excursion to the Piava delta, where Hemingway, as an 18-year-old
ambulance driver with the American Red Cross, was injured by an explosion. He drew
on this experience in his acclaimed A Farewell to Arms. Poet and Hemingway scholar H.R. Stoneback also officiated a poetry reading by Hemingway’s
daughter-in-law, Valerie Hemingway, on the island of Torcello, another of the author’s
favorite sites.
According to its website, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation was established in 1965
by Hemingway’s widow, Mary Hemingway, “for the purposes of awakening, sustaining an
interest in, promoting, fostering, stimulating, supporting, improving and developing
literature and all forms of literary composition and expression.” In 1980, the Hemingway
Society was formed by a group of scholars, and this group was invited by Hemingway’s
sons to merge with the foundation in 1986. The organization continues to support literary
achievements in general, and especially the work of Hemingway.
For more information, contact Dr. Raouf Halaby at [email protected].
By Brooke Zimny
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