The Palestinian Novel
From 1948 to the Present

The first study in English to chart the development of the Palestinian novel in exile and under occupation from 1948 onwards.

Bashir Abu-Manneh (Author)

9781107136526, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 April 2016

244 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.49 kg

'… the work takes a bold stride in what might be a new direction in Palestinian literary study - to look beyond the nation at what Palestinian literature means for the world, and not just the homeland.' Nora Parr, Arab Studies Journal

What happens to the Palestinian novel after the national dispossession of the nakba, and how do Palestinian novelists respond to this massive crisis? This is the first study in English to chart the development of the Palestinian novel in exile and under occupation from 1948 onwards. By reading the novel in the context of the ebb and flow of Arab and Palestinian revolution, Bashir Abu-Manneh defines the links between aesthetics and politics. Combining historical analysis with textual readings of key novels by Jabra, Kanafani, Habiby, and Khalifeh, the chronicle of the Palestinian novel unfolds as one that articulates humanism, self-sacrifice as collective redemption, mutuality, and self-realization. Political challenge, hope, and possibility are followed by the decay of collective and individual agency. Genet's and Khoury's unrivalled literary homages to Palestinian revolt are also examined. By critically engaging with Lukács, Adorno, and postcolonial theory, questions of struggle and self-determination take centre stage.

Introduction: theory, history, form
1. Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's self-sacrificers: realism, revolt, and renewal
2. Ghassan Kanafani's revolutionary ethics
3. Emile Habiby: capture and cultural escape in The Pessoptimist (1974)
4. Sahar Khalifeh: radical questions and revolutionary feminism
5. Tonalities of defeat and Palestinian modernism
Epilogue: remembrance after defeat: Gate of the Sun (1998).

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: post-colonial literature [DSBH5], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]