Short Fiction as a Mirror of Palestinian Life in Israel, 1944-1967: Critique and Anthology

198 Pages·2017·3.99 MB·English

by  Jamal Assadi

4
This volume seeks to document the development of the Palestinian short story between
S
1944 and 1967. This particularly significant phase that carried the seeds, from which h
o
r
the short story grew, was greatly influenced by the last years of the British mandate over t

F
Palestine in 1944, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent
i
c
changes that impacted Palestinian society in this country until the Arabs’ defeat in the t Short Fiction
i
o
Six Day War, 1967. n

a
s
a as a of
Within the fold of this volume, the reader will find two parts: the first is a general account Mirror
M
of the development of the genre of short fiction and the different approaches that char-
i
r
acterized it along with a discussion of the language and an examination of the content. ro
r
The second is an anthology of twenty-five stories published between 1944 and 1967 by o Palestinian Life
f
Al-Ittiḥād, an Israeli Arabic-language daily newspaper. P
a
l
e
Jamal Assadi, senior lecturer (A), chairs the Department of English and st in Israel, 1944–1967
i
n
the Department of English for Academic Purposes at Sakhnin College,
i
a
where he also occupies other key offices. Dr. Assadi previously worked n

L
at various colleges in Israel and at An-Najah National University, if Critique and Anthology
e
Nablus. He received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University
i
n
of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom. In addition to numerous
I
s
articles in professional journals, Dr. Assadi is the author, co-author, editor/co-editor, r
a
e
and translator of a dozen of books on American and Arabic literature, most notably: l, T
Acting, Rhetoric and Interpretation in Selected Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Saul Bellow (2006), A 19 AS
Distant Drummer: Foreign Perspectives on F. Scott Fitzgerald (2007), The Road to Self-Revival: Sufism, 4 E
4 E
L
Heritage, Intertextuality and Meta-Poetry in Modern Arabic Poetry (2011), The Story of a People: An – D
Anthology of Palestinian Poets Within the Green-Line (2011) and Ibrahim Mālik: The Culture of 196 MID
Peace and Co-existence (2015). He is also a writer of children’s stories. 7
E
H
| T

Saif Abu Saleh is a lecturer of Arabic literature at Sakhnin College and N
A O
the principal of Technological High School in Sakhnin. Dr. Abu Saleh S S
S E
received his M.A. from Haifa University and his Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv A I
D D
University. Dr. Abu Saleh is a notable scholar of the Arabic literature I U
& ST
movement in Israel between 1948 and 2000. S W
A E
L N
E
H s
t
WWW.PETERLANG.COM n
e
P
E r
T r
E
R u
LA c JAMAL ASSADI
N s
G s
o
and
r SAIF ABU SALEH
Cover design by Sophie Appel C
Cover image Ibrahim Hejazi, Kafir Yasif Market (100 × 80 cm acrylic on canvas) w ith Assistance from Michael Hegeman and Simon Jacobs
Cover background image ©iStock.com/AnnaPoguliaeva
4
This volume seeks to document the development of the Palestinian short story between
S
1944 and 1967. This particularly significant phase that carried the seeds, from which h
o
r
the short story grew, was greatly influenced by the last years of the British mandate over t

F
Palestine in 1944, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, and the subsequent
i
c
changes that impacted Palestinian society in this country until the Arabs’ defeat in the t Short Fiction
i
o
Six Day War, 1967. n

a
s
a as a of
Within the fold of this volume, the reader will find two parts: the first is a general account Mirror
M
of the development of the genre of short fiction and the different approaches that char-
i
r
acterized it along with a discussion of the language and an examination of the content. ro
r
The second is an anthology of twenty-five stories published between 1944 and 1967 by o Palestinian Life
f
Al-Ittiḥād, an Israeli Arabic-language daily newspaper. P
a
l
e
Jamal Assadi, senior lecturer (A), chairs the Department of English and st in Israel, 1944–1967
i
n
the Department of English for Academic Purposes at Sakhnin College,
i
a
where he also occupies other key offices. Dr. Assadi previously worked n

L
at various colleges in Israel and at An-Najah National University, if Critique and Anthology
e
Nablus. He received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University
i
n
of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom. In addition to numerous
I
s
articles in professional journals, Dr. Assadi is the author, co-author, editor/co-editor, r
a
e
and translator of a dozen of books on American and Arabic literature, most notably: l, T
Acting, Rhetoric and Interpretation in Selected Novels by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Saul Bellow (2006), A 19 AS
Distant Drummer: Foreign Perspectives on F. Scott Fitzgerald (2007), The Road to Self-Revival: Sufism, 4 E
4 E
L
Heritage, Intertextuality and Meta-Poetry in Modern Arabic Poetry (2011), The Story of a People: An – D
Anthology of Palestinian Poets Within the Green-Line (2011) and Ibrahim Mālik: The Culture of 196 MID
Peace and Co-existence (2015). He is also a writer of children’s stories. 7
E
H
| T

Saif Abu Saleh is a lecturer of Arabic literature at Sakhnin College and N
A O
the principal of Technological High School in Sakhnin. Dr. Abu Saleh S S
S E
received his M.A. from Haifa University and his Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv A I
D D
University. Dr. Abu Saleh is a notable scholar of the Arabic literature I U
& ST
movement in Israel between 1948 and 2000. S W
A E
L N
E
H s
t
WWW.PETERLANG.COM n
e
P
E r
T r
E
R u
LA c JAMAL ASSADI
N s
G s
o
and
r SAIF ABU SALEH
Cover design by Sophie Appel C
Cover image Ibrahim Hejazi, Kafir Yasif Market (100 × 80 cm acrylic on canvas) with Assistance from Michael Hegeman and Simon Jacobs
Cover background image ©iStock.com/AnnaPoguliaeva
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
Short Fiction as a Mirror
of Palestinian Life in Israel, 1944–1967

“This significant book monitoring and documenting a critical stage in the history of
modern Palestinian literature preserves Palestinian short stories which would have
remained kept in old newspaper archives and unexplored corners of ignored
libraries. Furthermore, it offers scholars and readers a comprehensive critique of
these stories illustrating the circumstances under which these short stories were
written and discussing the various literary trends and streams that influenced their
artistic structure and contents.”
—Mahmoud Ghanayem, Professor of Modern Arabic Literature, Tel Aviv University;
Chairman, Arabic Language Academy, Israel

Short Fiction as a Mirror
of Palestinian Life
in Israel, 1944–1967
Crosscurrents
NEW STUDIES ON THE MIDDLE EAST

R. Kevin Lacey and Sari Nusseibeh
General Editors

Vol. 4

The Crosscurrents series is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Frankfurt  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Jamal Assadi and Saif Abu Saleh
with Assistance from Michael Hegeman and Simon Jacobs

Short Fiction as a Mirror
of Palestinian Life
in Israel, 1944–1967

Critique and Anthology

PETER LANG
New York  Bern  Frankfurt  Berlin
Brussels  Vienna  Oxford  Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Assadi, Jamal, author translator. | Abū Ṣāliḥ, Sayf al-Dīn, author translator.
Title: Short fiction as a mirror of Palestinian life in Israel, 1944–1967:
critique and anthology / Jamal Assadi, Saif Abu Saleh.
Other titles: Ittiḥād (Haifa, Israel)
Description: New York: Peter Lang.
Series: Crosscurrents: new studies on the Middle East; vol. 4
ISSN 2381-2443 (print) | ISSN 2381-2451 (online)
Includes twenty-five translated Arabic short stories
previously published in the newspaper, al-Ittiḥād.
Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017032057 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3536-1 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1909-5 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-4827-9 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-4331-4828-6 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Short stories, Arabic—Palestine—History and criticism.
Arabic fiction—20th century—History and criticism.
Arab-Israeli conflict—Literature and the conflict.
Palestinian Arabs in literature.
Short stories, Arabic—Palestine.
Arabic fiction—20th century.
Arab-Israeli conflict—Fiction.
Palestinian Arabs—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PJ8190.4 .S56 | DDC 892.7/3010895694—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032057
DOI 10.3726/978-1-4539-1909-5

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

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For my grandchildren Judy and Jamal
J.A.
For my children Bashshar and Bayan
S.A.S.