On the 11th of June, 2022, Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) presents a meeting of a book club on the theme Palestinian Literature. This meetup is great for youth (12+) and adults. The meeting point is the Information Centre at Al Mureijah Art Spaces. The visitors are welcome to arrive at 4 pm and the Book Club will take place until 7 pm. Languages spoken are English and Arabic.
The SAF Book Club participants are going to go on a tour of Khalil Rabah’s exhibition What Is Not, which is now taking place at Galleries 1, 2 and 3 in Al Mureijah Art Spaces. After the tour, the book club members will meet and discuss Palestinian literature, including Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings In Jenin and Ghasan Kanafani’s Men In The Sun and others. Members are encouraged to bring their favourite book on Palestine to make it a part of the discussion.
Until the middle of the 20th century, Palestinian literature developed as part of pan-Arab literature. Its development was facilitated by the emergence of a national press. The first literary magazine, an-Nafais al-Asriyah (1908-1923), was founded by Khalil Beidas, the founder of the novel genre. In the 1920s and 1930s, the short story writers Mahmud Seif al-Din al-Irani, the founder of the literary magazine al-Fajr (in 1935), Najati Sidqi and Ishaq al-Husseini, and the writers Ibrahim Tuqan and Ibrahim Mahmoud.
The works of Jabra Ibrahim Jabra gained wide popularity. The problem of the socio-political and cultural development of the Palestinian people, the theme of the struggle for the liberation of their native land are the main ones in the literature of the 60s (the work of Samira Azzam, Mahmoud Shukeyr, Yahya Yahluf, Majid Abu Sharar).
Modern Palestinian literature is characterized by the predominance of military-patriotic themes, a heightened sense of modernity, love for the motherland, and high citizenship.
To get more information and register, please visit the official website of Sharja Art Foundation.
