Narrating the Other Half of the Palestinian Story: Reading Susan Abulhawa’s Novels as Counternarratives

ABSTRACT

Susan Abulhawa is one of the contemporary Palestinian American writers who has adopted the novel to interrogate the Zionist narrative which has established many wrong concepts of Palestine and Palestinians and to draw attention to the many ways in which Zionist texts of derogatory representations have been established as authoritative through the assumption that such narratives offer an accurate and true image of Palestine and Palestinians. The present article explores Abulhawa’s novels as counternarratives that challenge and subvert the Zionist dominant narrative and attempt to correct the false image of Palestinians in Western media and canonical works. The article argues that Abulhawa’s novels are probable models of the Palestinian writers’ historical and political counternarratives which have masterfully broken the silence which has been imposed on Palestinian (hi)stories, and on the persistent effects of silencing Palestinians and shattering their voices. It, further, argues that Abulhawa’s novels assert the Palestinian self and articulate Israel as an imperialist and settler entity and provide the possibility of constructing an alternative cultural and national narrative of Palestine’s history since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, which will affirm the Palestinians’ continuous existence in their land and their forced expulsion.

KEYWORDS:

• Palestine
• Zionism
• Nakba
• Abulhawa
• counternarrative

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Ebrahim Mohammed Alwuraafi

Ebrahim Mohammed Alwuraafi is Associate Professor of English literature at the Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia. He did his postgraduate studies in India at the University of Mysore. He has published a number of articles on Arab American novel and Arab novel in translation as well as orientalist writings.