Copyright by William Andrew Paul 2013 The Dissertation Committee for William Andrew Paul certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: BORDER FICTION: FRACTURE AND CONTESTATION IN POST-OSLO PALESTINIAN CULTURE Committee: Tarek El-Ariss, Supervisor Karen Grumberg, Co-Supervisor Kristen Brustad Yoav Di-Capua Noah Simblist BORDER FICTION: FRACTURE AND CONTESTATION IN POST-OSLO PALESTINIAN CULTURE by William Andrew Paul, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2013 Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of my committee. I am grateful to Tarek El-Ariss, whose boundless enthusiasm for my project and belief in my potential as a scholar have inspired me to push myself further than I ever knew possible. Karen Grumberg helped me (re)discover my love for literature in the first class I ever attended as a graduate student and has been a vital source of encouragement and knowledge ever since. I would not be here without Kristen Brustad’s unfailing support. When I walked bright-eyed into her first-year Arabic class 10 years ago, I had no idea where it would lead me. She is the model of teacher, scholar, and mentor that I aspire to emulate. Yoav Di-Capua’s intelligence and his ability to discern the forest from the trees has proven invaluable from the beginning of my graduate career to the present. Noah Simblist enthusiastically helped open my eyes to the world of Palestinian and Israeli art, without which this project would have turned out very differently. I have also benefited greatly from the support of many people, both at UT and beyond, who have taken an interest in my success over the years. Mahmoud al-Batal opened my eyes to the joys of teaching, both by example and by giving me the opportunity to develop my own pedagogical and linguistic skills. My research trip to Israel and Palestine in Spring 2012 was essential in shaping this dissertation, thanks to a wonderful set of interlocutors I met there, most notably Rasha Hilwi, whose hospitality and warmth will not be forgotten. I hope there will be many more fruitful trips in the iv future. During the late stages of this project I have had the pleasure to work with Hoda Barakat, and I have been honored and humbled by her interest and enthusiasm toward my work. My graduate studies built on a solid foundation from my time as an undergraduate at Emory University. My courses in Middle Eastern Studies, English, and German helped develop my loves of language, literature, and the Middle East, all of which led me to this point. Benjamin Hary warrants special thanks for exposing me for the first time to the world of the Middle East, in both its beauty and its blemishes. This project has benefited from the insights of friends and scholars whose contributions have made this dissertation immeasurably better. I am especially grateful to Zeina Halabi and Michal Raizen for their valuable feedback on portions of my dissertation and for their friendship and support. I would also like to thank Emilie Zuniga, Angela Giordani, Ben Koerber, Johanna Sellman, Anna Ziajka, and the many other friends, colleagues, and fellow gluttons for punishment at UT whose warmth and humor have helped me through this process. I am fortunate to have the support of an amazing group of friends both near and far. Anthony Ferraro, Dena Afrasiabi, and Tyler Atwood have provided me with large amounts of comic relief, coffee, and Tex-Mex that helped fuel my work. My life in Austin would have been much less exciting without Rebecca Hopkins, my roommate who became one of my best friends and a partner in countless crimes. Jaclyn Barbarow, Rishi Chhatwal, Rachel Cohen, and Tal Kramer are the best friends a person could ask for. Our laughter, antics, and time together have made this journey immeasurably easier. I look forward to our annual New Years trips with relish, as well as our daily conversations v that help keep me sane. They are always there when I need a sanity break, and I cherish our friendship deeply. I’m lucky to have a wonderful, fun, supportive, and beautifully large family. My parents have encouraged me through the ups and downs, as I’ve gone to places and in directions they (and I) never expected. Their wisdom and guidance always helps me maintain perspective when it’s easy to become consumed by the small distractions of life as a graduate student, and I always look forward to our visits and trips with relish. My sisters, Lauren and Becca, have showered me with love and support. Even when we’re separated by hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of miles, we always pick up right where we left off, like we just saw each other yesterday. My grandparents – Grandmama, Papa, Adair, and Joe who is no longer with us – have taught me many lessons, among them to be curious about the world. My time in France with my grandparents at age 13 helped spark my love of languages and travel. I also have a supportive set of step-parents, step- siblings, and extended family who never fail to make every visit a warm and exciting one. I’m thrilled that the next step in my journey will bring me closer to home. I love you all. My biggest thanks go to Blake Atwood, who has been a pillar of support throughout this process. He is the first to read everything I write, and he has a magical ability to help me make sense of my often disjointed ramblings. He has been a constant source of encouragement, calm, and wisdom. You are my rock, and I couldn’t have done this without you. vi BORDER FICTION: FRACTURE AND CONTESTATION IN POST-OSLO PALESTINIAN CULTURE William Andrew Paul, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Tarek El-Ariss Co-Supervisor: Karen Grumberg This dissertation delves into a body of Palestinian literature, film, and art from the past two decades in order theorize the relationship between borders and their representations. In Israel and Palestine, a region in which negotiating borders has become a way of life, I explore the ways in which ubiquitous boundaries have pervaded cultural production through a process that I term “bordering.” I draw on theoretical contributions from the fields of architecture, geography, anthropology, as well as literature and film studies to develop a conceptual framework for examining the ways in which authors, artists, and filmmakers engage with borders as a space to articulate possibilities of encounter, contestation, and transgression. I argue that in these works, the proliferation of borders has called into question the Palestinian cultural and political consensus that created a shared set of narratives, symbols, and places in Palestinian cultural production until the last decade of the 20th century. In its place has emerged a fragmented body of works that create what Jacques vii Rancière terms “dissensus,” or a disruption of a cultural, aesthetic, disciplinary, and spatial order. Read together, they constitute what I term a “border aesthetic,” in which literature, film, and art produce new types of spaces, narratives, and texts through the ruptures and fractures of the border. I trace the emergence of this aesthetic and the new genres and forms that distinguish it from earlier Palestinian literary, political, and intellectual projects through analyses of the works of Elia Suleiman, Sayed Kashua, Raba’i al-Madhoun, Emily Jacir, Yazid Anani, and Inass Yassin. In their attempts to grapple artistically with the region’s borders, these authors, directors, and artists create new codes, narratives, vernaculars, and spaces that reflect the fragmentation wrought by pervasive boundaries. These works, fluent in multiple mediums, genres, and languages, reveal both the possibilities and the limits of this aesthetic, as they seek to contest borders but nevertheless remain bound by them. viii Table of Contents A Note on Translation and Transliteration xi! Chapter 1 – Introduction: The Productive Paradox of Borders in Palestine and Israel 1! A Place of Borders 5! Defining Borders 11! Beyond Resistance and Commitment 23! Toward a Border Aesthetic 26! Chapter 2 – “A House with Two Shadows:” Parodic Narratives of Return in Raba‘i al-Madhoun’s The Lady from Tel Aviv 32! Reconfiguring the Return Narrative 35! Shadows of Parody 42! The Lady from Tel Aviv: A Novel of Shadows 46! A Narrative of Encounter 52! Dethroning the Author 60! Conclusion: Stray Bullets and Stray Narratives 63! Chapter 3 – Exilic Borders: Crossing as Estrangement in the Novels of Sayed Kashua 67! From Resistance to Crossing 72! Second Person Singular: The Silent Estrangement of Crossing 84! Escaping Estrangement 92! Conclusion 95! Chapter 4 – The Illusion of the One-Way Mirror: Filming the Checkpoint in Divine Intervention 97! A Checkpoint Film/Filming the Checkpoint 100! Unsettling the Checkpoint 109! Conclusion 120! ix Chapter 5 – Re-Mapping Ramallah: Reimagining Urban Space through Public Art 122! Mapping Ramallah 126! “Al-Riyadh”: Globalized Development as Double Occupation 133! “Projection”: A Cinema as Heterotopia 142! Conclusion: Border Interventions 149! Chapter 6 – Conclusion: Palestine, Israel, and Beyond 152! References 160! x A Note on Translation and Transliteration In this dissertation I have used published translations of Arabic and Hebrew texts when available, except instances in which I used my own translation to emphasize certain textual features. In particular, I used the English translations of two works by Sayed Kashua, Dancing Arabs, trans. Miriam Shlesinger, and Second Person Singular, trans.