Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home

Authors: Penny Johnson, Raja Shehadeh
Publisher: Olive Branch Press
Edition: 1
Publish Year: 2012
ISBN: 9781566569064

Fifteen Palestinian writers reflect on their experiences of exile"Palestine-in-exile," says Rana Barakat, "is an idea, a love, a goal, a movement, a massacre, a march, a parade, a poem, a thesis, a novel and, yes, a commodity, as well as a people scattered, displaced, dispossessed and determined."How do Palestinians live, imagine and reflect on home and exile in this period of a stateless and transitory Palestine, a deeply contested and crisis-ridden national project, and a sharp escalation in Israeli state violence and accompanying Palestinian oppression? How can exile and home be written?In this volume of new writing, fifteen innovative and outstanding Palestinian writers-essayists, poets, novelists, critics, artists and memoirists-respond with their reflections, experiences, memories and polemics. What is it like, in the words of Lila Abu-Lughod, to be "drafted into being Palestinian?" What happens when you take your American children - as Sharif Elmusa does - to the refugee camp where you were raised? And how can you convince, as Suad Amiry attempts to do, a weary airport official to continue searching for a code for a country that isn't recognized?