A Brief Introduction to Palestinian Literature
Price range: £6.99 through £9.99
Available 18 February 2027
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About the Book
Born in the upheavals of colonial rule and national dispossession, Palestinian literature has long been a vital expression of identity, resilience and imagination. From the earliest anti-colonial writings under the British Mandate to the urgent voices that emerged after the Nakba of 1948 and Naksa of 1967, Palestinian writers have forged a body of work that speaks powerfully to both local struggles and global audiences.
This book offers an accessible introduction to Palestinian literature, tracing its evolution across key historical moments and exploring how it has navigated themes of resistance, exile, loss and hope. It also considers the shifting landscape of postresistance literature in the wake of the Oslo Accords and the rise of new sensibilities in contemporary writing.
Engaging and wide-ranging, it reveals how Palestinian literature has been central to shaping cultural identity and sustaining collective memory, while increasingly capturing the attention of readers around the world.
About the Author
Atef Alshaer is a lecturer in Arabic Studies at the University of Westminster. He was educated at Birzeit University in Palestine and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he obtained his PhD and taught for a number of years. He is the author of several publications in the fields of language, literature and politics, including Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World, The Hizbullah Phenomenon: Politics and Communication (with Dina Matar and Lina Khatib), Love and Poetry in the Middle East (editor) and Language and National Identity in Palestine: Representations of Power and Resistance in Gaza, both forthcoming. Alshaer regularly contributes to academic and media outlets, including the BBC, Independent, I-Newspaper, Electronic Intifada and Radio Monocle.
