This is a study of Palestinian literature, particularly that written in Israel, within the political and social context of Palestinian society, with a special focus on literature written during the intifada "uprising" period of 1987-93.

Studies of Palestinian society, economy, and politics are appearing with increasing frequency, but works in English about Palestinian literature, particularly that written in Israel, are still scarce. This book looks at this literature within the political and social context of Palestinian society, with a special focus on literature written during the Intifada "uprising" period (1987-93).

Palestinian Literature and Film in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective is the first sustained study of gender-consciousness in the Palestinian creative imagination. Drawing on concepts from postcolonial feminist theory, Ball analyses a range of literary and filmic works by major creative practitioners including Michel Khleifi , Liana Badr, Annemarie Jacir, Elia Suleiman, Mona Hatoum and Suheir Hammad, and reveals a hitherto unrecognized trajectory in gender-consciousness under development in the Palestinian imagination from the start of the twentieth century. The book explores how these works resonate with questions of power, identity, nation, resistance, and self-representation in the Palestinian imagination more broadly, and asks how these gender-conscious narratives transform our understanding of Palestine's struggle for postcoloniality. Working at the cusp of postcolonial, feminist and cultural enquiry, Ball seeks to open up vital new directions in the interdisciplinary study of Palestine.

Despite, or even because of their tumultuous history, Palestinians are renowned for being prolific cultural producers, creating many of the Arab world's most iconic works of literature. In particular, the Palestinian short story stands out for its unique interplay between literary texts and the political and historical contexts from which they emerge. Palestinian Literature in Exile is the first English language study to explore this unique genre. Joseph Farag employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine the political function of literary texts and the manner in which cultural production responds to crucial moments in Palestinian history. Drawing from the works of Samira Azzam, Ghassan Kanafani and Ibrahim Nasrallah, Farag traces developments in the short story as they relate to the pivotal events of what the Palestinians call the Nakba ('catastrophe'), Naksa ('defeat') and First Intifada ('uprising'). In analysing several as yet un-translated works, Farag makes an original contribution to the subject of exilic identity and subjectivity in Palestinian literature. This book offers the opportunity to engage with literary works as well to learn from a literary account of history.It is a subject of interest for students and scholars of both Arabic literature and Middle East studies.

This book deals comprehensively with different aspects of collective victimhood in contemporary Israel, but also with the wider implications of this important concept for many other societies, including the Palestinian one. The eight highly-diverse, scholarly chapters included in this volume offer analysis of the politics of victimhood (viewing it as increasingly dominant within contemporary Israel), assess victimhood as a focal point of the Jewish historical legacy, trace the evolution and changes of Zionist thought as it relates to a sense of national victimhood, study the possibility of the political transformation of victimhood through changing perceptions and policies by top Israeli leaders, focus on important events that have contributed to the evolvement of the victimhood discourse in Israel and beyond (e.g. the 1967 Six-Day and 1973 Yom Kippur wars in the Middle East), examine the politics and ideology of victimhood within the Palestinian national movement, and offer new ways of progressing beyond national victimhood and toward a better future for people in the Middle East and beyond. The insights of the eight authors and their conceptualization of Israeli victimhood are of immediate relevance for numerous other national groups, as well as for a variety of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. This volume has been inspired by the universality of victimhood among humans, reflected in King Lear’s words (“I am a man more sinned against than sinning”), as well as by the words of the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, telling the Knesset in Jerusalem: “No longer is it true that the whole world is against us”. While the book sums up the state of the field in regard to collective victimhood, it invites the readers to engage in contemplating the far-reaching implications of this important concept for our lives.

Arabic is unconditionally the national language of Palestinians, but for many it is no longer their mother-tongue. More than a century after the early waves of immigration to the Americas, and more than seven decades after the Nakba of 48, generations of Palestinians have grown up in a variety of different contexts within Israel-Palestine and the world at large. This ongoing scattered state has led to the proliferation of Palestinian culture as it is simultaneously growing in multiple directions, depending on geographical, political, and lingual contextualization. The Palestinian story no longer exists exclusively in Arabic. A new generation of Palestinian and Palestinian-descended writers and artists from both Latin and North America, Scandinavia, and Europe at large, as well as Israel-Palestine are bringing stories of their heritage and the Palestinian nation into a variety of languages such Spanish, Italian, English, Danish, and Hebrew—among so many other languages. Being There, Being Here is the product of an eight-year long journey in which Maurice Ebileeni explores how the Palestinian homeland is being imagined in multiple languages from a variety of positions both locally and globally. The book poses unsettling questions about this current situation and also looks to the future to speculate about how a Palestinian nation might still house the notion of home for an increasingly diverse Palestinian population.

By analyzing its position within the struggles for recognition and reception of different national and ethnic cultural groups, this book offers a bold new picture of Israeli literature. Through comparative discussion of the literatures of Palestinian citizens of Israel, of Mizrahim, of migrants from the former Soviet Union, and of Ethiopian-Israelis, the author demonstrates an unexpected richness and diversity in the Israeli literary scene, a reality very different from the monocultural image that Zionism aspired to create. Drawing on a wide body of social and literary theory, Mendelson-Maoz compares and contrasts the literatures of the four communities she profiles. In her discussion of the literature of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, she presents the question of language and translation, and she provides three case studies of particular authors and their reception. Her study of Mizrahi literature adopts a chronological approach, starting in the 1950s and proceeding toward contemporary Mizrahi writing, while discussing questions of authenticity and self-determination. The discussion of Israeli literature written by immigrants from the former Soviet Union focuses both on authors who write Israeli literature in Russian and of Russian immigrants writing in Hebrew. The final section of the book provides a valuable new discussion of the work of Ethiopian-Israeli writers, a group whose contributions have seldom been previously acknowledged. The picture that emerges from this groundbreaking book replaces the traditional, homogeneous historical narrative of Israeli literature with a diversity of voices, a multiplicity of origins, and a wide range of different perspectives. In doing so, it will provoke researchers in a wide range of cultural fields to look at the rich traditions that underlie it in new and fresh ways.

The contributors to this wide-ranging work of scholarship and analysis include mentors, colleagues, friends, and students of the late Magda al-Nowaihi, an outstanding scholar of Middle East studies whose diverse interests and energy inspired numerous colleagues. The book's first part is devoted to Arabic elegy, the subject of an unfinished work by al-Nowaihi from which this volume takes its title. Included here is a previously unpublished lecture on elegy delivered by al- Nowaihi herself. Other contributors examine this poetic form in both classical and modern contexts, from a number of angles, including the partial feminization of the genre, making this volume perhaps the most comprehensive resource on the Arabic elegy available in English. The book's second half features essays relating to al-Nowaihi's other research interests, especially the modern Arabic novel and its transgressive and marginalized status as literature. It deals with authors as varied as Tawfiq al-Hakim, Latifa al-Zayyat, Bensalem Himmich, and Sonallah Ibrahim. Broad in its scope and rigorous in its scholarship, this volume makes a fitting tribute to an inspiring scholar. Contributors: Roger Allen, Dina Amin, Michael Beard, Jonathan P. Decter, Alexander E. Elinson, Marlé Hammond, András Hámori, Mervat Hatem, Wolfhart Heinrichs, Richard Jacquemond, Lital Levy, Mara Naaman, Magda al-Nowaihi, Dana Sajdi, and Christopher Stone.

A timely and significant contribution to Palestinian children’s literature from 1967 to the present day, Palestinian Memory and Identity in Modern Children’s Literature examines a myriad of motifs and popular culture, and the evolution of national identity and consciousness among young Palestinians. Utilizing analytical and in-depth readings, this text presents a thorough examination of the representations and role of folk culture in Palestinian children’s literature from both thematic and stylistic-linguistic perspectives. The analysis covers a wide range of diverse works representing popular culture published after 1967, including diverse works by writers from Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Palestinian diaspora. This volume will be of interest to academics and students exploring the vast contexts of Arabic children’s literature and Palestinian folk lore.

Intro -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Introduction -- Genesis of a Project -- The Power of a Cultural Paradigm for British Mandate Palestine and Christian Communities -- Precedents -- Looking at Cultural Diplomacy in a Proto-National Setting: Towards an Integrative Approach -- Overview of the Book -- Speaking to the Silences? -- Bibliography -- Turning the Tables? Arab Appropriation and Production of Cultural Diplomacy -- Introduction Part I Indigenising Cultural Diplomacy? -- Bibliography -- Orthodox Clubs and Associations: Cultural, Educational and Religious Networks Between Palestine and Transjordan, 1925-1950 -- Orthodox Laity in the Emirate of Transjordan: Developing Diplomatic Ties in a Political Sphere in Reconfiguration -- Orthodox Laity During the Interwar Period: Regional Networks and Circulations -- Claims for Cultural and Educational Facilities in the New Capital -- Orthodox Laity and the Mandate Representative: Creating Political Ties -- The Orthodox Notables in Transjordan and the Development of the Arab Orthodox Nahda Association -- The Foundation of the Arab Orthodox Nahda Association: A Palestinian Connection? -- The Arab Orthodox Nahda Association: Creating a Communal Urban Presence -- Migration and Regional Circulation: Expanding the Arab Orthodox Imprint in Amman -- The 1940s and the Change of Diplomatic Paradigm -- From Sunday School to the Educational Association -- Sporting and Cultural Associations: Family Networks and Know-How -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- The Making Stage of the Modern Palestinian Arabic Novel in the Experiences of the udabāʾ Khalīl Baydas (1874-1949) and Iskandar al-Khūri al-BeitJāli (1890-1973) -- A Cultural Life Before Its Destruction -- Literature, Nahda and Russian Schools in Palestine.