Postmillennial Palestinian Prose: Can the Dead (Palestinians) Speak?

Abstract

In this study, we delve into the intricate relationship between the impossibility of coexistence between two ethnicities—the Israeli and the Palestinian—and the subsequent marginalization and disenfranchisement faced by the latter. Our focus lies in understanding how these historical dynamics have shaped the poetics of modern Palestinian literature. Throughout its developmental phases, Palestinian literature transcends mere therapeutic or corrective measures; it becomes an existential necessity—a validation of the existence of Palestinian bodies, spirits, and voices, whether living or deceased. Within this literary landscape, themes of resistance and exile emerge as integral motifs, particularly during phases of maturity and refinement. Over the last few decades, especially after the Oslo Agreement (1993), these themes have evolved, intertwining with feelings of isolation, alienation, and despair, sometimes supplanting the earlier emphasis on resistance and exile. Post-millennial Palestinian writers have further evolved narrative techniques, employing associative and discontinuous storytelling to reflect the resignation resulting from prolonged occupation (referred to as “the continuous Nakba”).

Adania Shibli’s prose oeuvre stands as a significant illustration of this new post-millennial poetics. Her fragmented approach, both formally and thematically, diverges from earlier phases of Palestinian literature. In our analysis, we closely examine Shibli’s third novel, Minor Detail. By meditating on a violent past, Shibli grapples with the problem of silencing Palestinians—their subaltern status, succinctly defined by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as “positions without identity”. Through the deliberate use of “minor details”, Shibli directs her attention to the marginalized Other in history, exploring the possibility of giving voice to the silenced dead Palestinians, not just the living ones. Shibli’s response lies in the literary treatment of factual material, employing aesthetics of neutralization and counter-memories to depict the frozen “reverse shot”, which often remains overshadowed by the dominant Israeli narrative.