Changes in the New Palestinian Novel

Abstract

This study observes the near complete break between the Palestinian novel written some years ago and much of what is being written today, particularly by young novelists. The author categorizes three trends in the Palestinian novel: previous generations outside the country; the trend of writers inside the country before Oslo; and the young novelists inside Palestine, who went through the first intifada, which the author views as the first objective affirmation of a Palestinian identity under occupation. Naturally, the change is not just in subject matter, but also in artistic details: polyvocalism, handling space and time differently, wide variation in characters and so forth.