Catastrophe and Exile in the Modern Palestinian Imagination

Catastrophe and Exile in the Modern Palestinian Imagination explores the cultural memory of al-Nakba (1948 Israeli independence, or The Catastrophe as it is known in Palestine) and its significance to the modern Palestinian imagination. Ihab Saloul addresses central concepts to debates over identity such as nostalgia and trauma, notions of home and forced travel, and geopolitical continuity of loss of place. Through an integrated method of close narrative and discursive analysis of diverse literary texts, films, and personal narratives, this study offers an analytical account of the preservation of cultural optimism in the face of the ongoing catastrophe, as well as the ways in which aesthetics and politics intersect in contemporary Palestinian culture.

'The Palestinians' expulsion from their homeland is a piece of history we cannot revisit too often. In this compelling book, Saloul shows how narrative intersects with the memory of exile in a uniquely reflexive type of cultural analysis, transforming the catastrophe of loss into an empowerment to speak, imagine, and reclaim.' - Rey Chow, author of Entanglements, or Transmedial Thinking about Capture "The Palestinian al-Nakba is an on-going reality rather than solely a past event. In this book, memories and everyday life are textually interwoven, as Saloul skillfully explores how the Palestinian past and present unite. Saloul's is the authentic voice of the insider, and a refugee living in a state of exile. Exile, as he shows, is both a metaphor and a practice, and through fine cultural analysis, the concept's multiple meanings are revealed. This book is an insightful journey through the spaces linguistic, political, cultural, and familial created by the Palestinian catastrophe." - Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, author of Remembering Palestine in 1948 'This powerful book on the political role of cultural memory shows that 'telling memories' is emotional as well as political. This study makes innovative use of cultural analysis to make an insightful and compelling contribution to the record of Palestinian catastrophe, the Nakba.' - Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp professor of Global studies, University of California, Santa Barbara 'Built out of familiar components cultural memory, nostalgia, trauma this lyrical and erudite study is all its own, sweeping across novels, films, oral histories, and personal interviews to deliver an indelible portrait of the courage, humor, and inventiveness of the Palestinian people. Without rancor serenely and with dignity Saloul gives us a colloquial, but also philosophical, dissection of the catastrophe of Palestinian dispossession. Like one of the novels he treats, his book 'drifts between the stage and the archive,' and ends up presenting us with a modern epic of painful memories and indomitable spirits. Smart, informed, and moving.' - Timothy Brennan, professor of English, University of Minnesota

Ihab Saloul is a lecturer in Comparative Literature and Media at Maastricht University, and EUME Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).