Magical Realism in Palestinian Literature and Folktale
Reading the Distorted Spaces of the Nakba
Magical Realism in Palestinian Literature and Folktale
Reading the Distorted Spaces of the Nakba
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Description
The book analyzes mainly three works of literature: Saraya Bint al-Ghul: Khurafiyya (Saraya, the Ogre's Daughter: A Palestinian Fairy Tale), Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun), and al-Talabiyya C345 (Order C345) while also consulting the folktales from Qul ya Tayr (Speak Bird, Speak Again). Through these texts (and others) magical-realist figures like ghosts, ogresses, cyborgs, and eco-surrealist creatures that revive Palestinian resilience and (re)connection to the land are investigated within the context of distorted spaces.
Magical-realist tropes like dreams that reflect the nightmarish character of the current Palestinian reality, as well as dreams of liberation and future returns, are analyzed alongside genres such as surrealism and science fiction, while highlighting Palestinian agency and unity. This study is the first of its kind to interrogate magical-realist and folkloric modes in the context of Palestinian literature in order to examine the distorted realities of the Palestinian experience since the Nakba. Drawing on Arabic language works of fiction, the book offers a unique approach to examining contemporary Arabic literary spaces and how these reflect and challenge lived realities.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
A Note on Translation and Transliteration.
Introduction.
Chapter 1: Magical Realism.
Definitions and Conceptualizations.
Features and Functions.
Folktales.
Other Genres.
Chapter 2: Palestinian Literature and Distorted Spaces
On Palestinian Life and Arabic Literature
Nakba as Spatial Distortion
Types of Space
Chapter 3: Emil Habiby's Ghosts and Magical Ecologies
Introduction
The Mirror Narrator and the Present Absentee
Returning Ghosts
Surrealism and Mirrors from a Comparative Lens
Magical Realism and Paratextuality
Metamorphosis and Anthropomorphism
Surrealism and Animism
Chapter 4: Khoury's Gates of the Sun: Memory and Nightmare Spaces
Introduction
Caves and Conflation
Spatial and Temporal Distortions.
Ghosts and the Living-Dead
Eco-Surrealism and the Grotesque.
Chapter 5: Hlewa's Gothicism, Hauntings, and Cyborgs.
Introduction.
Ghost Narrators and Distorted Bodies.
Animism and Corporeal Distortion
Posthumanism and the Cyborg
Eco-Surrealism
Monstrous Geographies
Ghouls and Zombies
Conclusion: Portals to Hope
Product details
| Published | 21 Jan 2027 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 240 |
| ISBN | 9780755654833 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Series | SOAS Palestine Studies |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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