https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3868-9427
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ABSTRACT
The article addresses a relatively neglected area of research: Palestinian literature for adolescents, adab al-yāfiʿīn [literature for adolescents] or Young Adult (YA) literature. It sheds light on how this literature addresses the unique problematics of growing up under occupation and considers how novels for young adults reflect the Palestinian teenager's consolidation of his or her identity in relation to the political and social conditions imposed by oppression. The essay surveys the phenomenon of Palestinian YA literature and focuses on a reading of Ahlam Bsharat’s novel Code Name: Butterfly [Ismī al-ḥarakī farāsha]. Bsharat's work is unique in the relatively limited tradition of Palestinian YA literature in its avoidance of ideology and didacticism, and in its attempt to turn the text itself into a holding space for Palestinian teens. Analysis shows how Butterfly legitimizes the experiences of young adults and gives voice to their lived experience.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Bshārāt, “ʾaynā taʾkhudh ʾAḥlām Bshārāt al-ʾaṭfāl ʿindamā yaqṭaʿūn al-nahr?” (interviewed by ʾAsmāʾ ʿAzāyza, January 1, 2021, https://www.arab48.com/فسحة/ورق/أدب/2021/01/31/أين-تأخذ-أحلام-بشارات-الأطفال-عندما-يقطعون-النهر-%7C-حوار (accessed December 11, 2022).
2 Sawsan, “ʾadab al-ʾaṭfāl fī filasṭīn,” p. 20.
3 Danīs, “ʾadab al-ʾaṭfāl al-filasṭīnī wal-fikr al-siyāsī: shiʿir Muḥammad al-Ẓāhir namūdhajan,” https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/1652270 (accessed December 21, 2021).
4 ʿAlīnāt, “ṭufūlah fī ṣirāʿ,” p. 26.
5 ʾAbū Fannah, “dalālat al-makān,” pp. 9-16.
6 Danīs, “ʾadab al-ʾaṭfāl al-filasṭīnī wal-fikr al-siyāsī: shiʿir Muḥammad al-Ẓāhir namūdhajan,” https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/1652270 (accessed December 21, 2021).
7 ʿAlīnāt, “ṭufūlah fī ṣirāʿ,” pp. 26-27.
8 al-Najjār, “mādhā naktubu lil-yāfiʿīn,” “mādhā naktubu lil-yāfiʿīn,” Institute for Palestine Studies, https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/1651887 (accessed October 10, 2021).
9 Ibid.
10 Anati, “A Voice from the Middle East,” p. 74
11 al-Najjār, “mādhā naktubu lil-yāfiʿīn,” “mādhā naktubu lil-yāfiʿīn,” Institute for Palestine Studies, https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/1651887 (accessed October 10, 2021)
12 According to the census of 2016. See Maan News Agency, “Report from 20.11.2016”
13 Yūsuf, “wamḍāt min ʾadab al-nāfiʿīn al-filasṭīnī”
14 Bshārāt, “ʾistiʿādat bayt al-mukhayyalah,” Watan, https://www.wattan.net/ar/news/317061.html (accessed December 11, 2022).
15 Winnicott, The child, the family, and the outside world.
16 Bshārāt, “ʾistiʿādat bayt al-mukhayyalah,” Watan, https://www.wattan.net/ar/news/317061.html (accessed December 11, 2022).
17 Bshārāt, “ʾaynā taʾkhudh ʾAḥlām Bshārāt al-ʾaṭfāl ʿindamā yaqṭaʿūn al-nahr?” (interviewed by ʾAsmāʾ ʿAzāyza, January 1, 2021, https://www.arab48.com/فسحة/ورق/أدب/2021/01/31/أين-تأخذ-أحلام-بشارات-الأطفال-عندما-يقطعون-النهر-%7C-حوار (accessed December 11, 2022).
18 Bshārāt, “ʾaynā taʾkhudh ʾAḥlām Bshārāt al-ʾaṭfāl ʿindamā yaqṭaʿūn al-nahr?” (interviewed by ʾAsmāʾ ʿAzāyza, January 1, 2021, https://www.arab48.com/فسحة/ورق/أدب/2021/01/31/أين-تأخذ-أحلام-بشارات-الأطفال-عندما-يقطعون-النهر-%7C-حوار (accessed December 11, 2022).
19 The title is perhaps deliberately ambiguous. See Genette, “Structure and Functions.”
20 On seductive titles see al-Hamīmī, “barāʿat al-ʾistihlāl”; Nir, “Nituah ha-siah”; Garst and Bernstein, Headlines and Deadlines.
21 On dedications see: Myres and Michael, The Longman Dictionary; On threshold texts see ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Ḥajmarī, ʿatabāt al-naṣ.
22 Bshārāt, ʾismī al-ḥarakī farāshah, pp 5–6.
23 Bshārāt, p. 32.
24 Bshārāt, p. 19.
25 Ibid, pp. 30–31.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid, p. 28.
28 Ibid, p. 30.
29 I chose this appellation because the representative of this generation in the novel is the grandfather, who works as a shepherd. At the end of the novel lambs play an important symbolic role.
30 Bshārāt, p. 53.
31 Ibid, pp. 52-53
32 Ibid, p. 15.
33 Ibid, p. 8.
34 Ibid, p. 43.
35 See the depiction of the people's automatic sympathy upon hearing that Nizār was killed, pp. 49–50. See also, for example, the cat as martyr, p. 43. As another example, Ṣafiyya makes jokes and only pretends to be sad when grandfather ʿAbd al-Raḥmān dies, but when Nizār is killed her grief is real, p. 50.
36 Bshārāt, p. 29.
37 Ibid, pp. 30–34.
38 Ibid, pp. 42–43.
39 Ibid, p. 44.
40 Ibid, p. 46.
41 Ibid, pp. 46–47.
42 Ibid, p. 49.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 See the father's words: Bshārāt, p. 49.
46 Ibid, p. 52.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid, p. 53.
49 Ibid, p. 54.