Social Alienation and Estrangement in Four Stories by Palestinian Writer cAlā Ḥlayḥal

Abstract

This article examines the novella al-Sīrk (2001) and three short stories (ʿZawjī Sā'iq Bāṣ', 2008, ‘Tacāyush’, 2008 and ‘al-Sajjāda’, 2003) by contemporary Palestinian writer cAlā Ḥlayḥal (Ala Hlehel). These texts manifest a preoccupation with the breakdown of human relationships and related themes of failed communication and miscommunication between people. These themes articulate the alienation, isolation and estrangement of individuals from one another, from community and society. The purpose of the present study is an analysis of the portrayal of social decay, alienation and estrangement in these texts, revealing structural expressions of degeneration, as well as a deterioration of interpersonal relations articulated by stymied communication, miscommunication and neglect, often expressed textually through irony and hypocrisy. These particular works were chosen because of their preoccupation with the themes at hand, and also because these are masterfully written stories in their own right deserving critical analysis. While Ḥlayḥal's stories resound with the theme of alienation which has marked Palestinian literature from its formative stages onwards, they reject a staunchly committed stance and do not issue moral imperatives or political slogans. The nuances of these texts are examined in light of other works of Palestinian literature, and especially considering the intertextual references therein.