The Political, Social, and Aesthetic Transformations in the Palestinian Novel on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century

Palestine is strongly present in the Arabic novel; just as Arab concerns are strongly present in the Palestinian novel. Nevertheless, there are some differences marking out the Palestinian novel, the first of which to attract the attention is the presence, or evocation, of memory as an act of resistance, which has given rise to series of novels telling Palestinian history in parts, and in making the scene of the Palestinian novel reflect the transformations of the Palestinian cause: talk of peace and normalization, labor inside the Green Line; a two-state solution or a single bi-national state; mockery of the PA; the Palestinian diaspora; the prisons of the occupation, and so forth. The scene of the Palestinian novel since Oslo has experienced a sharp turn, which is part of the sharp turn in the intellectual, political, social, and literary life of the Palestinians after that event, which posed new subjects which this study considers in a number of novels, as well as dealing with the boldness towards novelistic traditions.

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Palestine is strongly present in the Arabic novel; just as Arab concerns are strongly present in the Palestinian novel. Nevertheless, there are some differences marking out the Palestinian novel, the first of which to attract the attention is the presence, or evocation, of memory as an act of resistance, which has given rise to series of novels telling Palestinian history in parts, and in making the scene of the Palestinian novel reflect the transformations of the Palestinian cause: talk of peace and normalization, labor inside the Green Line; a two-state solution or a single bi-national state; mockery of the PA; the Palestinian diaspora; the prisons of the occupation, and so forth. The scene of the Palestinian novel since Oslo has experienced a sharp turn, which is part of the sharp turn in the intellectual, political, social, and literary life of the Palestinians after that event, which posed new subjects which this study considers in a number of novels, as well as dealing with the boldness towards novelistic traditions.

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