List of Publications by Department for the Academic Year Palestinian Walks: Narratives of Resistance between Poetics and Politics
Abstract
Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, is the memoirs of Palestinian lawyer and activist Raja Shehadeh. The memoirs, written in highly poetic language, are a reconstruction of a history long subdued and marginalized from the grand narrative of the Middle East dominating Western discourse. As such, Raja Shehadeh presents a highly politicized narrative of resistance that seeks to fight back at the dominant stories of the Occupation. Where the Israeli settlements changed the Palestinian landscape beyond recognition, Shehadeh’s narrative attempts to trace the process and thus provides the reader with a vivid image of a Palestine that is no more.This paper, thus, seeks to explore how Shehadeh’s nostalgic personal recollections are in fact narratives of resistance. The paper discusses Shehadeh’s use of language, the meticulous descriptions of landscapes, the politicization of personal histories and the legal (but also more violent forms of) embattlement over the ownership of the land.
Author(s)
Helmi, L.C
Coauthor(s)
Helmi, L.C
Journal/Conference Information
The International Conference on “History and Memory: Literature Stands Witness”,BAU, 28-29 November 2013