EAN: 9783447057684

THE QUEST FOR A LOST IDENTITY - MAHMUD GHANAYIM...

Arabic fiction by Palestinian writers in Israel underwent a rebirth with the establishment of
the State in 1948 - an event affecting not only the land that had been Palestine  but the
entire region. In The Quest for a Lost Identity  Mahmud Ghanayim probes in considerable detail
this creative process over the last half-century. Adopting a strictly literary treatment of the
new situation  he reconstructs the various stages in the evolution of Palestinian literature
and its difficult existence under martial law. Perusing works by such writers as Hanna Ibrahim
Atallah Mansur  Muhammad Ali- Taha  Tawfiq Fayyad  Muhammad Naffa Naji Zahir  Riyad Baydas  and
others he highlights the efficacity of ideologically-driven literary criticism monitoring the
direction and literary strategies underlying the cultural revival generated by this national
minority. The author of this penetrating monograph deftly etches the new Palestinian self-image
emerging from this literary rebirth with its ardent ambition to create an esthetically-inspired
rather politically-monitored literature. Perhaps no Palestinian writer of calibre exemplified
better than Emile Habibi the aspiration to break away from the grip of local cultural
conventions to achieve artistic modernity. In effect  this doyen of Palestinian literature
succeeded in meeting the expectations of three highly demanding readerships comprising the
local Arab minority  the Jews  and the Arab world outside Israel.

Aktuelle Preise zur EAN 9783447057684

Produktinformationen zur 9783447057684