Ghassan Kanafani as a Revolutionary Intellectual, Humanist and Pioneer of the Literature of Resistance

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to explore Ghassan Kanafani’s character as a revolutionary intellectual, humanist and pioneer of the Literature of Resistance. He is the exiled Palestinian writer who insists on voicing his distinctive identity when his writings emerge as diverse, imaginative and revolutionary in both content and style. He is the voice of the voiceless. His novels and stories have been rendered into several languages worldwide, including English, German and French. Obviously, he was influenced by his country’s history and culture and that’s why he has sought to reconstruct that history, set the record straight and reclaim the lost homeland. An understanding and appreciation of his literary works must be dealt with from within the political and literary contexts of the twentieth century that overtook the Arab world in general and the land of Palestine in particular. His creative writings reflect the dignity, defiance, steadfastness and human resilience of its Palestinian people who have been living under harsh circumstances of displacement and dispossession since 1917 with still nowhere to flee to, even in the sun.