This is a collection of stories centering on the lives of the Palestinians living in Deir-Al-Asad, Israel and the United States. Lying With the Saints focuses on the roles of respect and honor within the Arab family. Engagement is about the rituals of courtship and marriage and how the fine the line between love and honor can be. The Boy Who Forgot Arabic deals with identity struggles in post-September 11th America and Guests at the Wedding is about the clash between the close-knit culture of the Palestinian family and that of the American way of life. I chose to tell these interconnected pieces as short stories instead of weaving them together as part of a novel because I believe it is reflective of the fragmented lives of the Palestinians living in Israel. They are not fully accepted in the country of their citizenship – Israel – and they are not fully accepted by the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These "Arabs of '48," as they are called, are caught between worlds and cultures from the moment they are born. They are second-class citizens of Israel, but even so, they enjoy a higher standard of living than the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Neither side fully trusts them and they often feel the tug from both sides, creating a natural division of loyalties. Their voices often go unheard, but their needs and status will need to be addressed in any serious negotiations between Palestine and Israel. The late Edward Said often wrote about the fragmented narrative style in modern Palestinian fiction. For Said, Emile Habibi's novel, Said the Pessoptomist, successfully shows the Palestinian experience because it employs a non-linear method of storytelling that reflects the uncertainty of day-to-day life for the Palestinians as a people. (Said) Filmmaker Elia Suleiman also uses this sort of storytelling device in Chronicle of a Disappearance and Divine Intervention. The dramatic leaps in narration and time may be disconcerting to a Westerner, but they are all too familiar to the Palestinians. While I do not take the same liberties in my storytelling as Habibi and Suleiman, I do see their influence in these stories. I see the search for identity that is core to both men's work. The struggle to define oneself is part of the growing process anywhere, but it is especially true for the Palestinians living in Israel. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: October 29, 2004. / Fiction, Palestinians, Florida / Includes bibliographical references. / Virgil Suarez, Professor Directing Thesis; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Mark Cooper, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168367 |
| Contributors | Assadi, Ginger R. (authoraut), Suarez, Virgil (professor directing thesis), Stuckey-French, Elizabeth (committee member), Cooper, Mark (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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