Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation, 1948-1968

Ghassan Kanafani’s remarkable extended essay, Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation, 1948-1968, is an unyielding act of cultural and political endurance. Writing in the wake of Israel’s devastating territorial expansion in 1967, Kanafani elaborates his theory of resistance literature and offers a visceral account of life under occupation.

In the two decades following the Nakba, Palestinian writers undertook the grueling task of waging cultural struggle in order to protect their language, culture, and heritage. In addition to Kanafani’s groundbreaking essay, the book includes a selection of poetry, prose, and dramatic writing curated by Ghassan Kanafani himself. Bringing together writing from Mahmud Darwish, Hanna Abu Hanna, and Samih al-Qasim, among many others, Kanafani’s essay and the accompanying pieces stand as a defiant declaration of cultural survival in the wake of Israeli expansion.