Writing Back Against Erasure in Harb’s Remains and Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

By drawing on recent contributions to post-colonial and memory studies, this study examines narratives by two Palestinian authors, Ahmad Harb and Raja Shehadeh. It aims to show how both texts document the attempts of the Israeli colonialism to erase and alienate the existence of Palestinian people from the physical space and memory. It also highlights how each writer relies on collective memory to write back against this erasure. The study shows the importance of preserving and transmitting the Palestinian memory from one generation to another. Finally, it emphasizes the potentials of the two texts and their ability to reach the Western audience. Harb and Shehadeh have succeeded in employing memory as a tool of fighting against erasure and maintaining the Palestinian historical presence. This emphasis on memory in Palestinian writing is meant to counter the attempts of the Israeli settler-colonialism to erase the memory of the place and time from the minds of the Palestinian people to, easily, dominate the land.