PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation is a postcolonial study of selected writings of the Palestinian intellectual, journalist, political activist, and author, Ghassan Kanafani. Using postcolonial theory to create a single framework for the study of selected writings of Kanafani, this dissertation will also contribute to the analysis of the postcolonial Palestinian novel. This study hopes to achieve these goals by investigating the ways in which Kanafani's literary works can serve as means to explore the importance that Palestinians attach to the history of their struggle for freedom and cultural preservation. It is within this postcolonial context that Men in the Sun (1963), All That's Left to You (1966), and Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories (1969) will be discussed in this dissertation. The novellas and short stories are prime examples of traumatic experiences that Palestinian refugees faced during Kanafani's lifetime. The writings reflect Kanafani's understanding of the permanent exile, fear, isolation, loneliness, and despair that he and many Palestinians experienced during major parts of the twentieth century as results of Zionist occupation of Palestine. Kanafani's realistic depictions of these harsh situations are key factors that make his works ideal for postcolonialist analysis.

Committee: Babacar M’Baye Dr. (Committee Chair); Ali Erritouni Dr. (Committee Member); Ryan Miller Dr. (Committee Member); Joshua Stacher Dr. (Committee Member); Ann Heiss Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Literature; Middle Eastern Studies

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Creative Writing

You Don't Have to Look Up Every Time and Other Stories is a collection of braided short stories set and reaching from the present moment into the future of Palestine.The collection grapples with themes of nostalgia and memory, generational trauma, spatial politics, hope, and joy. Told from a unique set of points of view, the stories explore a diverse set of experiences and voices ranging from the Palestinian diaspora, to Palestinians in Palestine, to the fauna of Palestine, where one story is narrated by a species of gazelle native to Palestine. This textured exploration of social and political diversity aims to weave the complexities and nuances of Palestinian identity and views on sovereignty. The collection situates itself in contemporary Palestinian literature, while drawing inspiration from other liberation movements including Indigenous futurism and Afrofuturism. The collection plays with temporalization of space and memory, employing traditional, experimental, and fragmented forms to contemplate the state of wandering for refugees, exiled Palestinians, and those still living under occupation. You Don't Have to Look Up Every Time and Other Stories uses the speculative genre to radically imagine, or reimagine liberation and decolonization for Palestine, taking a daring leap into hope for a better future for Palestine.

Committee: Pauls Toutonghi Ph.D. (Committee Member); Reema Rajbanshi Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Fine Arts; Literature

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation examines the relationship that the Palestinian diaspora maintains with the motherland of Palestine. Specifically, it studies the factors contributing to the fostering of such a sense of affiliation among Palestinian diasporic communities despite the absence of a Palestinian political entity that could undertake such a process. This dissertation proposes that the Palestinian master-narrative plays a significant role in maintaining and enhancing the attachment and affiliation of Palestinian diasporic communities with their original homeland. The Palestinian master-narrative, it is contended, is one of the main vehicles through which Palestinian national identity is built within and beyond the geographical realm of historic Palestine. This research claims that Palestinian diasporic writing (including Palestinian-American writing) has been circulating the Palestinian national narrative, which plays a significant role in enhancing the connection between Palestinian diasporic communities and their original homeland and helping them build a national identity. In addition, the circulation of these national narratives establishes the Nakba as a traumatic event in the collective imagination of post-Nakba Palestinian generations, making them equally traumatized as those Palestinians who experienced these events firsthand. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on representations of two main Palestinian national narratives in Palestinian-American writing and their role in building Palestinian national identity. The first narrative is that of the right of return and it is traced in Susan Abulhawa's Mornings in Jenin (2006). The second one is the narrative of sumud and it is examined in Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home (2008). In addition, the relationship between memory and Palestinian identity-building via national narrative is explored in Shaw Dallal's Scattered Like Seeds (1998).

Committee: Babacar M’Baye (Committee Co-Chair); Yoshinobu Hakutani (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: American Literature; Ethnic Studies; Literature; Middle Eastern Literature

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

Amidst the many literary voices in Arabic and Hebrew clamoring for prominence in the narration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are those that actively resist dominant social narratives, highlighting the multiplicity of experiences held by different members of society and how they are affected by the conflict. In this thesis I examine the literary works of two novelists, the Palestinian Sahar Khalifeh and the Israeli David Grossman, and the specific ways in which they resist dominant societal representations of the “other,” both in political and gendered terms. Sahar Khalifeh's The Inheritance focuses specifically on women's role in a society under occupation, while David Grossman's To The End of the Land looks at the military conflict through the lens of a mother concerned about her soldier son. Focusing on the woman's role in the family and in society, both Khalifeh and Grossman reveal the damaging effects that the conflict has on the social structures at the heart of both Israeli and Palestinian societies. In doing so, both Grossman and Khalifeh create new paradigms for portraying women and conflict in literature, ones that promote women as empowered subjects and highlight the varied experiences of women in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Committee: Naomi Brenner (Advisor); Joseph Zeidan (Committee Member) Subjects: Middle Eastern Studies