Imagining Palestine

All national identities are somewhat fluid, held together by collective beliefs and practices as much as official territory and borders. In the context of the Palestinians, whose national status in so many instances remains unresolved, the articulation and `imagination of national identity is particularly urgent. This book explores the ways that Palestinian intellectuals, artists, activists and ordinary citizens `imagine their homeland, examining the works of key Palestinian thinkers and writers such as Edward Said, Mahmoud Darwish, Mourid Barghouti, Ghassan Kanafani and Naji Al Ali. Deploying Benedict Andersons notion of `Imagined Communities and Edward Sojas theory of `Third Space, Tahrir Hamdi argues that the imaginative construction of Palestine is a key element in the Palestinians ongoing struggle. An interdisciplinary work drawing upon critical theory, postcolonial studies and literary analysis, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Palestine and Middle East studies and Arabic literature.