A Locus-Less Literature: the Parallel Geographies of Palestinian Literature during the Tunis Period (1982–1994)

Abstract

Abstract Emerging from the rubble of the civil war in Lebanon, a group of literary figures sought shelter in Tunis, alongside the PLO and its political factions. Although the ‘Tunis period’ lasted more than a decade, from 1982 to 1994, it remains a neglected period of Palestinian literary history. As part of a larger project that seeks to reconnect disconnected periods of Palestinian literature from 1948 to the present, this article probes the lost Tunis period to better understand Palestinian literature’s North African foray. Using the lens of Arabic literary periodicals, and supported by the tools of Digital Humanities, the article surveys the contents and contributor networks of Tunisian, Moroccan, as well as local and transnational Palestinian periodicals. By tracing literary networks and personal trajectories, the article reveals the parallel geographies of Palestinian literature during a period of intense exile and deterritorialization, an itinerary that includes stops in Tunis, Paris, Casablanca, Nicosia, Jerusalem, and Haifa.