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العنوان
Palestine Remembered :
المؤلف
Hafez, Nisreen Ibrahim.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / نسرين إبراهيم حافظ إبراهيم
مشرف / فاتن إسماعيل مرسي
مشرف / منى قتاية
تاريخ النشر
2021.
عدد الصفحات
169 p. ;
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
الدكتوراه
التخصص
الأدب والنظرية الأدبية
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2021
مكان الإجازة
جامعة عين شمس - كلية الآداب - اللغة الإنجليزية وآدابها
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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from 169

Abstract

This thesis discusses the crucial role of memory in preserving the cultural and national identities of Palestinians. The research starts from the main premise that the Palestinian exilic experience is greater than any narration and can hardly be limited to the confines of a single text. In fact, the untold part or the silenced part of the Palestinian Diaspora is something that is beyond any human writing. Chapter One discusses the historical background of the Palestinian Question and the cultural and theoretical background of the work done on cultural memory studies in general and Palestinian historical and memory studies in particular. In chapter two I examine two poetic autobiographies by Darwish and Barghouti since they are written by two distinguished Palestinian poets who mastered the Arabic language and considered it a marker for their national identity. Moreover, the two poets’ shared characteristics in the themes and style of writing will be highlighted. In Chapter three, I examine two memoirs or autobiographies written by two prominent Palestinian intellectuals who represent another side of the Palestinian exilic experience; namely, Edward Said and Ghada Karmi. Both memoirs are written in English and share many features, despite their varied experiences.
The thesis is divided into three chapters and a conclusion. In Chapter One entitled, “Collective/Cultural Memory and Modes of Historical Representations”, I discuss the important role of memory in human societies. The discussion reveals the role of memory through various perspectives. Then, I relate this to the Palestinian collective memory.
In Chapter two, I analyze the two poetic autobiographies In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish and I Saw Ramallah by Mourid EL-Barghouti in the light of their exilic experiences. This chapter investigates the role of Arabic language as a marker of identity in selected works by the two distinguished Palestinian poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti. The discussion focuses on two works I Saw Ramallah (Henceforth ISR) by Barghouti and In the Presence of Absence (Henceforth IPA) by Darwish. First, I am going to shed light on the role of the intellectual toward his nation with special focus on how intellectuals are responsible for both representing their people’s sufferings and reconstructing their national history and reality. Second, I will attempt to explicate the role of autobiography as a means of introducing a counter version of history. Third, I will seek to delineate the characteristics of the exilic experience as it is reflected in the selected texts. Fourth, the chapter will lay emphasis on the representation of Palestine stressing the extent to which Darwish and Barghouti represented the image of their homeland in the light of their respective exilic experience. Finally, this chapter will try to analyze the image of the exiled person himself in the selected texts.
I turn in Chapter Three to the analysis of two autobiographies: Out of Place by Edward Said and In Search of Fatima by Ghada Karmi in the light of their hybrid identities and bilingual cultures. This chapter illustrates the role of English language and its cultural impact on the formation of the identity in selected works by two outstanding Palestinian intellectuals: Ghada Karmi and Edward Said. The discussion focuses on two autobiographies Out of Place (Henceforth OP) by Edwad Said and In Search of Fatima (Henceforth ISF) by Ghada Karmi. Both Karmi and Said lived their childhood in exile where they inculcated in English and studied the culture of Britain and America. Consequently, this foreign education distanced them from their national culture and caused them cultural conflict. First, I am going to explore the consequences of this cultural conflict on the formation of their national identities and how this formed their national consciousness. Second, I am going to shed light on their cultural and social struggle in exile and how they suffered from the consequences of political issues and conflicts in the Arab world during their childhood and youth. Third, I am going to explain their reaction toward this cultural and racial struggle stressing how they decided to defend their national identity.
I end with the conclusion in which I try to a wrap up the issues raised in the thesis assessing the texts analyzed pointing out to the rich literary and artistic production rendered by the respective writers and their intense exilic experience.