THEME AND TECHNIQUE IN GHASSAN KANAFANl'S SHORT FICTION By ADIL A. ~HMED Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Baghdad University Baghdad, Iraq 1974 Master of Arts Degree Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1982 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May, 1989 /JlPs/s 1fJ<f'o !9d8/pt ~~::; Oklalioma State Univ. Librai THEME AND TECHNIQUE IN GHASSAN KANAFANl'S SHORT FICTION Thesis Approved: Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to my committee members for their willingness to work with me on a topic relating to issues involving the Middle East and Palestine that are often overwhelmed by controversy. I am sincerely indebted to my major advisor, Dr. Mary Rohrberger for her guidance and continued encouragement. Her untiring assistance will always be cherished. Very special thanks are due to Dr. Samuel Woods and Dr. Nuala Archer for their splendid and careful reading, elucidation, and rational suggestions, all of which have made this dissertation possible. In addition, I would like to acknowledge my deepest gratitude and inexhaustible thankfulness to Dr. Ken Dollarhide for his encouragement to me to write on this talented Arab Palestinian writer whose works exhibit the vivifying influence of modern Arabic literature. Much credit is due also to Dr. Raymond Habiby, whose knowledge of Palestinian socio­ political history has enlightened me in the preparation of this work. I want to express my gratefulness and obligation also to Mrs. Judas Riley tor her help during the proofreading stage of this dissertation. This dissertation would not have been possible without my parents in my beloved homeland, Iraq, whose moral and emotional support, encouragement, love and trust in me kept me working. Likewise, I have been able to continue in my work despite any hardships and struggles because of the love and courage of my beautiful and intelligent wife, Lamies, and my daughter, Sajah. For their invaluable understanding and unconditional love, I am forever grateful. iii This dissertation is dedicated to the Palestinian stone-throwers of the long-simmering "lntifida" (uprising), who have been striving for their freedom and land, who have been defying the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with their Molotov cocktails and slingshots since December 9, 1987. I dedicate this work to the memory of Bassam Al-Shakah, the Mayor of Nablus, who refused to leave his Palestinian home town even after suffering from an Israeli car bomb, which resulted in the mutilation of both his legs in 1981; to those Palestinians who were slaughtered at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila by the Lebanese Phalangist Militia with the help of the Israeli forces in 1982; to those Palestinian martyrs who were massacred at the refugee camp of Tai Al-Zaatar (thyme hill) in 1976, known as both the Stalingrad of the Palestinian resistance and the "Auschwitz" in Palestinian modern history; to those forty six innocent Palestinians of the Kafr Kassim village who were massacred by the armed forces of Israel on October 29, 1956; and to those two hundred and fifty Palestinian men, women, and children at the village of Deir Yassin, West of Jerusalem, who were savagely butchered on April 10, 1948 in cold blood with their mutilated bodies thrown into a well or captured and brought in trucks to Jerusalem and paraded through the streets, where they were jeered and spat at. Lastly, I proudly dedicate my dissertation to Ghassan Kanafani's wife, Anni, and his two children, Fayez and Laila, reminding them that the blood of Kanafani is still nurturing the Palestinian olive tree, his name has been engraved into the Palestinian "Kuffiyah" (the black and white checkered headdress), and his writing has bloomed the flower of the Palestinian existential challenge, paving away a path for the Palestinians in existence and self­ discovery. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................... 1 II. "PALESTINE'S CHILDREN"................................................................ 27 11 Ill. "THE DEATH OF BED NUMBER 12 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 86 IV. "MEN IN THE SUN"............................................................................... 109 V. "OTHER PALESTINIAN STORIES".................................................... 137 VI. CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 166 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................... 178 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Unknown Photographer in Fawaz Turki, The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile........................................................... 1 2. Unknown Photographer in Ismail Shammout, Palestine: Illustrated Political History................................................................ 2 7 3. Bison Sygma in Jill Smolowe "Assignment: Murder"...................... 86 4. Unknown Photographer, ed. The Permanent Committee for Palestinian Deportees, Enforced Exile........................................... 109 5. Unknown Photographer in Ismail Shammout, Palestine: Illustrated Political History................................................................ 137 6. Unknown Photographer in Anni Kanafani, Ghassan Kanafani..... 144 7. Unknown photographer in Anni Kanafani, Ghassan Kanafani..... 153 8. Jodi Cobb in Joseph Judge, "This Year in Jerusalem"................... 163 9. Ghassan Kanafani, The Complete Works, Vol. 3, Al-Athar Al-Kamilah, Al-Mujllad Althalth........................................ 166 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Figure 1. Unknown Photographer in Fawaz Turki , The Disinherited: Journal of a Palestinian Exile (New York: Modern Library, 1972, [front cover]. 1 2 The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea-something you can set up, and bow down before and offer a sacrifice to ... (Joseph Conrad)1 Ghassan Kanafani's works emerge as a significant contribution to Arabic Literature, especially in the genre of short fiction; along with Emile Habiby, Samira Azzam, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, and Halim Barakat, Kanafani has brought Palestinian Literature into the modern era. Combining his experience as a journalist as well as considerable creative prowess, Kanafani has chronicled the experience of the Palestinian people from the British Mandate of 1920 to the June War of 1967. This dissertation investigates the techniques Kanafani uses by considering specific works. Chapter one provides an overview of Palestinian socio-political history and briefly places Kanafani in this context. Chapter two examines short stories from one of his earlier collections Palestine's Children with particular attention to emerging techniques. Chapter three focuses on one story, "The Death of Bed Number 12", which is significant because it clearly demonstrates Kanafani's ability to treat the Palestinian issue in a characteristically modern context. Chapter four reviews the short fiction "Men in the Sun" as a venture into the extended short story, displaying a significant maturity of technique especially as regards symbols. Chapter five examines the posthumous collection of stories included with "Men .Lo. the Sun", as Other Palestinian Stories, which not only demonstrate the range of Kanafani's talents, but also exhibit a personal and artistic maturity. As he begins to grapple with the Palestinian issue that for him reflects the universal history of oppressed and 3 underprivileged people. Chapter six emphasizes the progression of Kanafani's symbolic technique. The works examined by this dissertation are set in the time period from 1936 to 1967, a most significant period in the history of modern Palestine. In order to inform the reader about the significant political and historical issues of this period, this introduction provides a brief overview of the history of the Palestinian issue from its beginnings until 1967. The purpose of reviewing the beginnings of this conflict is that the reader may then more fully understand the multiple tensions that have contributed to the emotional climate which underlines the time and setting of these stories. Palestine, a land bridge between the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, is the center of the Arab world, a meeting point of the Arabic East and West. The original Semitic inhabitants of this locale, the Amorites, Canaanites, Aramaeans, and Arabs, are the ancestors of the Palestinians. Semites have migrated from the Arabian Peninsula into Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine since 3500 B.C. There is historical evidence that the Canaanites settled in Palestine around 2500 B.C., and by 2000 B.C. the city states of Canaan were founded as part of a larger movement to establish states in the various lands to which the Semites had migrated. Thus the Canaanites states were the first state established in the region now known as Palestine and Israel. Around 1200 B.C., the Hebrews, led by the law giver Moses crossed the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and settled in the area east of the Dead Sea. Under the military leader Joshua,