Palestinian Literature and Film in Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

This book offers a unique postcolonial feminist insight into the politics of gender, nation, and representation in contemporary Palestinian literature and film. Responding to Palestine's relative neglect in postcolonial studies, the book reveals how concepts adapted from contemporary postcolonial feminist scholarship help us to understand the relationship between the gender politics of Palestinian creative expression, and questions of power, identity, and nation in Palestine and indeed postcolonial studies more broadly. As the first cross-genre investigation of gender politics in Palestinian creative expression, the book constructs vital dialogues between works of prose, poetry, and film by canonical authors and filmmakers such as Michel Khleifi, Sahar Khalifeh, and Liana Badr, and those of emergent figures such as Suheir Hammad and Annemarie Jacir. Focusing on a number of key moments that have animated a particular consciousness of gender in Palestinian literature and film since 1948, such as the 'masculinity crises' that emerged in post-Intifada creative work, or the forms of transnational literary feminist community fostered among the 21st century Palestinian diaspora, the book adapts postcolonial feminist concepts ranging from 'hybridity theory' to models of the 'borderland' in order to explore the conflicts that emerge between the politics of gender and nation, and to reveal the ways that authors and filmmakers negotiate these politics for themselves. The book opens up vital new directions for postcolonial enquiry into Palestine beyond Edward Said's prominent legacy in the field, offering a fresh gender-conscious insight into the politics of identity, agency, and creativity within this frequently misrepresented nation.