The "Motherland": An Archetypal and Postcolonial Reading of Ghassan Kanafani's Umm Saad

Working at the intersection of postcolonial and archetypal criticism, this article investigates the role of women in resistance literature by looking at a piece of postcolonial Arabic fiction, Ghassan Kanafani's Umm Saad (1969). Rooted in Arab politics concerning land rights and anti-Zionist struggle, the text offers a related archetypal approach to the depiction of women in politicized literature. Umm Saad allegorizes the struggles of Palestinians to reclaim their land. A poor peasant woman, the titular heroine embodies the intimate connection between Palestinians and their land, acting as a helper to combative men and a primal symbol for attachment to the enduring land. Umm Saad is a personal mother and a trope for a feminized colonized territory, metaphorically representing the Palestinian nation and assuming mythological features enabling her to identify with the Earth Mother to send a message against dispossession. Since she embodies positive mother archetype symbolism (the personal mother and the Earth Mother), she acts as a source of fertility and protection. Expressing a political statement via the mother archetype, Kanafani appeals to a basic human need, i.e. the need to settle down in one’s land, which makes woman an indispensible part of the collective unconscious of any nation. Keywords: Archetypal Criticism; Kanafani; Mother(land); Postcolonial Arabic Fiction; Umm Saad.

Reinforcing Criticisms of Civil Resistance: A Response to Onken, Shemia-Goeke, and Martin

This article reinforces the criticisms I cast on civil resistance literature in my study “Debunking the Myths Behind Nonviolent Civil Resistance” through addressing issues on how scholars code violence, unarmed violence, and nonviolence. It justifies studying unarmed violence as a sole category and explicates the pathways through which unarmed violence can lead oppositional campaigns toward success. In responding to Onken, Shemia-Goeke, and Martin, the article demonstrates that the dichotomization of nonviolence and violence is not premised on analytical equivalency and should be avoided if the study of resistance strategies is to progress onward and step away from the literature's intrinsic ideological bias. There is nothing idealistic about seeking to improve how we operationalize concepts to study resistance strategies, but if scholars in the civil resistance literature fail to move away from universalistic assumptions about nonviolence and social change, they will continue to misinterpret historical processes and produce policy suggestions that are neo-colonial in nature.

Subject/ive bodies: the resistance poetics of Chrystos and Mahadai Das

Recent criticism has considered how literary texts harness historical and ideological forces in the representation of the body. However, much of that scholarship focuses on hegemonic structures such as Western medicine, post-human technologies or colonial race theories. This article looks at how two poets from the Americas – Indigenous North American Chrystos (Menominee) and Mahadai Das from Guyana – express representations of the body from a position of marginalisation to emphasise the connections between individual subjectivity and social transformation. I discuss the body as theme for producing a resistance poetry that directly connects desire, disaffection, sexuality and mourning to decolonisation. I perform close readings that emphasise the linkages between intimate relations and social movements. Chrystos and Das speak to a constitutive divide in post-colonial studies between the personal and political in what is called resistance literature. By centring deeply personal perspectives on decolonial struggle within a figurative context that encourages contemplation and complexity, these poets contribute to a diversification of resistance theory that addresses gender, anti-racist, sexual diversity and other movements of the last few decades.

Re-constructing Self-identity and Reorienting National Discourse: Critical Insights into an Autobiographical Book Karukku by an Indian Dalit Writer Bama

All battles cannot be won by swords or guns alone, particularly when the battle is against discriminatory ideologies and supremacist ideas. Dalit Writer Bama’s book Karukku is one such attempt to contest, resist and replace all such flawed ideas and hegemonic dogmas that have dehumanized Indian Dalits for centuries. This testimonio exposes the shameful and ugly facets of Indian societal structure, in which caste-based stratification has unfortunately and unjustly treated those very masses who have most diligently served this ancient civilization with their sweat and blood. Through this book, Bama makes an impactful appeal to her fellow folks—the Dalits and, in particular, to the Dalit women—to join hands together in re-conceptualizing and re-asserting their collective as well as individual identities so as to claim their rightful place in the Indian social order. This article not only delineates upon these multiple dimensions of this masterpiece that have contributed substantially to Dalit feminism but also argues that this book must be read as a thought-provoking piece of ‘Resistance literature’. Further, this article will also make an attempt to trace the intersecting trajectories between ‘Dalit feminism’, ‘Black feminism’ and ‘Postcolonialism’.

Concord between Palestinian Resistance and Literature: A Historico-Literary Analysis of Darwish’s Works

This research explores the last seventy years of the Palestinian Arabs’ political struggle for their recognition as a sovereign nation-state as reflected in the poetic and prose works of Palestinian national poet, Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008). Given the relationship between life and literature, the Palestinian situation can be best revealed through their own cultural productions, especially literature. Darwish has utilized his sense of exile and cultural memory to realize the ideals of Palestinian home and its requisite identity. His writings constitute an integral part of Palestinian resistance literature. His works are reflective of a deep aesthetic sense coupled with a profound political understanding of the ground facts within and outside Palestine. He contests the legitimacy of a sustained foreign occupation and at the same time stresses the need of preserving national cultural heritage. He stresses the need of both intellectual and political resistance to the gradual encroachment caused by the colonial settlement regime. The present research has sought to figure out the dimensions of Darwish’s poetic and intellectual contribution to the volatile geopolitical issue of the resistance to a hegemonic control.

The suffering of refugees in Ghassan Kanafani’s “The Child Goes to the Camp”: a critical appraisal

Purpose This paper aims to present a critical appraisal of Ghassan Kanafani’s short story “The Child Goes to the Camp” using the Appraisal Theory proposed by Martin and Rose (2007) in an attempt to investigate the predicament of the Palestinians who were forced to flee their country and live in refugee camps as well as the various effects refugee life had on them. Design/methodology/approach Using the Appraisal Theory, and with a special focus on the categories of Attitude and Graduation, the paper aims to shed light on the plight of refugees through revealing the narrator’s suffering in a refugee camp where the most important virtue becomes remaining alive. Findings Analysing the story using the Appraisal Theory reveals the impact refugee life has left on the narrator and his family. This story serves as a warning for the world of the suffering refugees have to endure when they are forced to flee their war-torn countries. Originality/value Although Kanafani’ resistance literature has been studied extensively, his short stories have not received much scholarly attention. In addition, his works have not been subject to linguistic analysis. This study presents an appraisal analysis of Kanafani’s “The Child Goes to the Camp” in an attempt to investigate how the author’s linguistic choices are key to highlighting the suffering of the Palestinians, especially children, in refugee camps.

Oppressed and Challenged but not Defeated: Families in Gaza Writes Back

The longstanding occupation, military operations, and siege have left their imprint on all aspects of life in Gaza including the family as the core unit of society. This article analyses the impact of the Israeli practices on the structure of the Palestinian family as found in Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine. More specifically, the paper argues that although various forms of aggression and harsh humanitarian conditions have taken a heavy toll on the Palestinian society, they did not destroy the tightly knit traditional and patriarchal structure of the family nor did they render Palestinians completely submissive or silent. Furthermore, the author argues that the highly autobiographical stories in GWB give voice to Palestinians living under constant fear, humiliation and deprivation, a voice that is repeatedly dismissed or muted by the international community. As such, Gaza Writes Back is treated in this study as a work that belongs to resistance literature.

“THE STRATEGY AND PSYCHOLOGY OF RESISTANCE IN A CONTEMPORARY KASHMIRI NOVEL IN URDU”

The sociopolitical milieu of post-1989 Kashmir heavily influenced the creative imagination. Multiple literary narratives have recounted the everyday life in Kashmir which is often seen as South Asia’s nuclear flash point.Severalliterary works have also been brought out in the Urdu language. In this paper, drawing uponBarbara Harlow’s framework of resistance literature and Jeanette Lawrence and Agnes Dodds’s theorization of the psychology of resistance, we argue that Nayeema Ahmad Mehoor’s Urdu novelDahshat Zadiis an example of Kashmiri resistance literature.Thepaper is also an attempt to understand how the contemporary Kashmiri writing in Urdu is linked with the broader resistance movement in Kashmir. Reconciling the representative strategy of resistance literature, as proposed by Harlow and others, with those employed by a Kashmiri writer, the study suggests that the patterns and purposes of resistance are often similar across the linguistic and geographical divides.

Are powder-technology-built stems safe? A midterm follow-up registry study

Background Powder technology was developed to bring together the mechanical features and high porosity of titanium. However, the high porosity may theoretically compromise mechanical resistance. Literature is deficient about the use and safety profile of cementless femoral implants built using additive manufacturing (in particular electron beam melting technology, EBM). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival rates and the reason for revisions (especially implant breakage) of the first two EBM-built stems at a mid-term follow-up, using a joint arthroplasty registry. Methods The registry of Prosthetic Orthopedic Implant (RIPO) was investigated about cementless stems implanted from 2010 to 2017. Stems built with EBM technology (Parva and Pulchra stems; Adler Ortho, Milan, Italy) were compared to all the other cementless stems implanted during the same period, acting as control group. The survival rates and reasons for revision were assessed. Results No stem breakage occurred. At 5-year follow-up, the survival rates of the two cohorts were not statistically different (96.8% EBM stems, 98.0% standard cementless stems; p > 0.05). In the EBM stems, aseptic loosening occurred in 1.7% of the cases at the latest follow-up. Conclusions This large cohort showed that mechanical resistance is not a concern in EBM stems at mid-term follow-up. However, larger populations and longer follow-ups are needed to further validate these results.