Abstract
The sense of national solidarity is a vexed one for Palestinians who have become refugees in their own territory. This paper reads two Palestinian texts side by side, Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin and Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail. Both these texts situate displaced Palestinians at the center of their narrative while offering two competing visions of the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. Yet, these texts present different avenues of unusual and what I call, “fractured hospitalities.” Abulhawa’s narrative describes the Palestinian struggle for self-determination but it’s aesthetic and affective energies problematize the politics of resistance between Palestinians and Israelis. Shibli’s Minor Detail describes the story of a Palestinian woman who unsuccessfully attempts to uncover the historical details of a ‘minor’ incident of brutality inflicted on an unnamed Bedouin girl. Where Shibli’s text sees the future as closed and repeating past violence, Abulhawa’s text harks to an opening that is redemptive. These two moods of hope and despair represent the polar ends of the existential spectrum along which Palestinians keep oscillating.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—The Art of Hospitality
KEYWORDS
Israel-Palestine, Hospitality, Displacement, Hope, Despair
