Abstract
This article explores the origins of Palestinian literature vis-à-vis the historical, political and literary backgrounds of Palestine. It argues that understanding the forces that informed Palestinian writers is necessary to appreciate this literature. From the British Mandate to 1948 and its aftermath to the 1967 War and the continued Occupation, the article looks at major themes as writers search for imaginative forms to reconstruct their history and voice their identity. Going beyond the imposed legacy of history, Palestinian writers reclaim their loss and dispossession in miraculous words. The emergence of “Poetry of Resistance” in the 1950s and thereafter is a witness to the resilience of Palestinians inside Israel. Moreover, as Palestinian writing continues to flourish, it builds on early writing, rejecting the “nightmare of history.” Palestinian literature is at the heart of the Palestinian struggle.
Highlights
This article explores the origins of Palestinian literature vis-à-vis the historical, political and literary backgrounds of Palestine
As one considers Palestine and the role of imaginative literature in what may be perceived as part of the national liberation struggle in this case, it seems plausible to argue that at particular historical periods, literature might be expected to play an overt political role
How does the political event, history as time, aid in the evolution of literary form and content that will transform the legacy of loss and dispossession into creative possibilities? What form(s) does resistance take, as far as the writer is concerned? What changes are implicated in the concept of the revolutionary/ resistant writer? How are the individual and the community enabled to imaginatively WUDQVFHQGKLVWRU\DVWLPHLQWRWKHUHDOPRIKLVWRU\DVP\WK"$QG¿QDOO\ZKDWLVWKH UHODWLRQVKLSEHWZHHQSROLWLFVDQGZULWLQJEHWZHHQDXWRELRJUDSK\DQG¿FWLRQ"7KLV discussion has attempted to answer these questions
Summary
Palestine has always held its place of prominence for Arab Moslems and Christians alike, Jerusalem was not the literary center that Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, or Beirut had been in the early decades of the twentieth century.2 1RQHWKHOHVVSDWULRWLFZULWLQJÀRXULVKHGGXULQJWKH0DQGDWHSHULRG Highly politicized articles in the local magazines and newspapers were the main venues for expressing Palestinian discontent with the Mandate authority, Jewish migration and labor, and land sales. Palestinian writers and intellectuals, like their Arab counterparts during this period, launched projects of translation from English, French and Russian OLWHUDWXUHVLQWR$UDELFZKLFKSOD\HGDVLJQL¿FDQWUROHLQWKHFRQWDFWEHWZHHQWKH literary traditions of the East and West Highlighted in these translations were the novel, the short story and literary criticism, as well as the modernist poetry of T. Does Tuqan direct his anger at %ULWLVK=LRQLVWOHDGHUVEXWDOVRDJDLQVWFRQWHPSRUDU\3DOHVWLQLDQDQG$UDEOHDGHUV His disillusionment with Palestinian leaders is best expressed in the poem “My Country”: “My country’s brokers are a band who shamefully survive and lead an easy, splendid life.” Having forfeited their responsibilities, the poet adds, the leaders pretend to be the land “saviours” and “protectors.”. Of note is the impact on the Arab world generated by contact with the West at this particular juncture of the twentieth century
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