Writing the resistance: Ghassan Kanafani and Bobby Sands : an exploration into literature and cinema

Abstract

This study is an exploration into the writing of resistance which has not yet attained sufficient study in the world of literature. It focuses on the development of the literature of resistance found in modern Arabic and Irish writings. Thus, an account of the Major works of the iconic Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani and the Irish writer Bobby Sands will be investigated. In addition, it discusses the cinematic adaptations of the selected writers’ literary texts. This involves a detailed analysis of Returning to Haifa and Men in the Sun by Ghassan Kanafani, and Writings from Prison by Bobby Sands. A thorough investigation in the cinematic adaptations was conducted, concentrating on The Survivor by Seifullah Dad, Return to Haifa by Kassem Hawal, Al-Makhduun (The Duped) by Tawfiq Salih, and Hunger by Steve McQueen. Concepts like resistance, Nakba (Palestinian catastrophe), loss of land, trauma, identity, and exile are analysed and examined in the course of the selected literary texts through textual and contextual approaches. In fact, it attempts to analyse the literary texts from a cultural approach, in addition to the historical, political and social backgrounds of the events that shaped the resistance literature in Arabic and Irish writings. It explores the collective and individual memory of the Palestinian catastrophe and the Irish struggle for freedom, and how this contributed toward the construction and the development of new types of characters. The definition of resistance literature and its defining parameters revealed that there is a pioneering and powerful political role assigned to it, as writing turns out to be a tool in the cultural resistance through its use of symbols, characters and metaphors. Both Ghassan Kanafani and Bobby Sands considered writing as a platform of expression for their struggles, and this is explained thoroughly in this research.