The Palestinian Case in Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s novels

Abstract

When we read the great Palestinian writer Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s novels,

autobiographies such as “The First Well” and “The Street of Princesses”

and interviews, we will notice the great presence of the “self” and a mixture

of the “real and “imagined” experiences.

The presence of the self can be manifested in the Palestinian obsession

and national concerns which appear constantly and differently in Jbara‘s

works that do not look for slogans and traditional expressions but tend to

delve deeply into the individual and human concerns

Since his first work “Hunters in Narrow Street” the presence of the “self

was so notable that the critics accord that "Jamil Farran" is no more than

the writer himself who never denied his Palestinian identity although he was

residing in Baghdad and had taught in one of its universities.

We can say the same thing with “The Ship” and “In Research of

Walid Messaoud” whose heroes “Wadie Assaf “ and “Walid Messaoud”

respectively are obsessed with Palestinian concerns.

The Palestinian case enjoys prominence mysteriously in some less famous

novels such as “ The Other Rooms” and “The Diaries of Sarab Affan”

Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to clarify the presence of the

Palestinian concerns, trace the constants and the varieties of this topic, and

justify the reasons of this shift thematically and aesthetically.

We focus on Jibra's autobiographical novels, “The First Well” and “The

Street of Princesses,” in addition to his interviews.