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The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun

Since the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, the definition of home in diasporic Palestinian literature has become a central issue among literary scholars. However, this concept of home has been addressed mainly from a mono-dimensional perspective, that is, either the concrete attachment or the abstrac...

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Main Authors: Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A., Ravichandran Vengadasamy,, Mohamed Zain Sulaiman,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/1/47511-156891-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
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spelling my-ukm.journal.172672021-08-03T06:12:50Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/ The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A. Ravichandran Vengadasamy, Mohamed Zain Sulaiman, Since the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, the definition of home in diasporic Palestinian literature has become a central issue among literary scholars. However, this concept of home has been addressed mainly from a mono-dimensional perspective, that is, either the concrete attachment or the abstract affiliation of home. Based on the significance of the interplay of both dimensions and the lack of focus on the duality of home in previous studies of Palestinian literature, this paper explores the abstract and concrete dimensions of ‘home’ as depicted in the novel Men in the Sun written by Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian diasporic writer. This study investigates the paradoxes of home for Palestinians in the aftermath of the Palestinian Nakba, with a special focus on Kanafani’s perception of home. The study adopts Georg Hegel’s dialectics of thesis, antithesis and synthesis in the discussion of the abstract and concrete perceptions of home. Our findings disclose that Kanafani projects the many spaces that the refugees seek shelter in, such as the refugee camp, as the antithesis of home and that they are attached to poverty, humiliation, and death. Not only does Kanafani deny any mediating solutions for home, but he also assures us that such mediating solutions, other than the original home, will lead to additional aggravation to the original problem of displacement. Therefore, the synthesis of home, in both its concrete and abstract dimensions, remains as Palestine. It is hoped that this paper will pave the way to a better understanding of the concept of a Palestinian home. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/1/47511-156891-1-PB.pdf Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A. and Ravichandran Vengadasamy, and Mohamed Zain Sulaiman, (2021) The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 21 (2). pp. 273-284. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Since the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, the definition of home in diasporic Palestinian literature has become a central issue among literary scholars. However, this concept of home has been addressed mainly from a mono-dimensional perspective, that is, either the concrete attachment or the abstract affiliation of home. Based on the significance of the interplay of both dimensions and the lack of focus on the duality of home in previous studies of Palestinian literature, this paper explores the abstract and concrete dimensions of ‘home’ as depicted in the novel Men in the Sun written by Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian diasporic writer. This study investigates the paradoxes of home for Palestinians in the aftermath of the Palestinian Nakba, with a special focus on Kanafani’s perception of home. The study adopts Georg Hegel’s dialectics of thesis, antithesis and synthesis in the discussion of the abstract and concrete perceptions of home. Our findings disclose that Kanafani projects the many spaces that the refugees seek shelter in, such as the refugee camp, as the antithesis of home and that they are attached to poverty, humiliation, and death. Not only does Kanafani deny any mediating solutions for home, but he also assures us that such mediating solutions, other than the original home, will lead to additional aggravation to the original problem of displacement. Therefore, the synthesis of home, in both its concrete and abstract dimensions, remains as Palestine. It is hoped that this paper will pave the way to a better understanding of the concept of a Palestinian home.
format Article
author Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A.
Ravichandran Vengadasamy,
Mohamed Zain Sulaiman,
spellingShingle Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A.
Ravichandran Vengadasamy,
Mohamed Zain Sulaiman,
The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
author_facet Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A.
Ravichandran Vengadasamy,
Mohamed Zain Sulaiman,
author_sort Shamallakh, Mohammed Lami S. A.
title The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
title_short The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
title_full The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
title_fullStr The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
title_full_unstemmed The dialectics of ‘home’ in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
title_sort dialectics of ‘home’ in ghassan kanafani’s men in the sun
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2021
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/1/47511-156891-1-PB.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/17267/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1397
_version_ 1707766998046343168
score 13.211869

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