Ghassan Kanafani began writing short stories when he was working in the refugee camps. Often told as seen through the eyes of children, the stories manifested out of his political views and belief that his students' education had to relate to their immediate surroundings. While in Kuwait, he spent much time reading Russian literature and socialist theory, refining many of the short stories he wrote, winning a Kuwaiti prize.
Kanafani published his first novel,
Men in the Sun in Beirut in 1962. He also wrote a number of scholarly works on literature and politics. His thesis,
Race and Religion in Zionist Literature, formed the basis for his 1967 study
On Zionist Literature.
Considered a major modernizing influence on Arab literature and still a major figure in Palestinian literature today, Kanafani was an early proponent of complex narrative structures, using flashback effects and a chorus of narrator voices for effect. His writings focused mainly on the themes of Palestinian liberation and struggle, and often touched upon his own experiences as a refugee. He was, as was the PFLP, a Marxist, and believed that the class struggle within Palestinian and Arab society was intrinsically linked to the struggle against Zionism and for a Palestinian state.
Also an active literary critic, Kanafani's seminal work,
Palestinian Literature Under Occupation, 1948-1968, introduced Palestinian writers and poets to the Arab world. He also wrote a major critical work on Zionist and Israeli literature. In the spirit of Jean-Paul Sartre, he called for an engaged literature which would be committed to change.
Influence
Kanafani is credited with having coined the term "resistance poetry" to refer to Palestinian poetry written in Occupied Palestine, a now recognized genre within the Arabic literary sphere. Mahmoud Darwish, who dedicated one of his own works, The Palestinian Wedding, to Kanafani, writes in an introduction to a volume of Kanafani's literary critical studies that, "It was Ghassan Kanafani who directed Arab public opinion to the literature of the occupied land [...] the term 'resistance' was not associated with the poetry until Ghassan applied it, thereby giving the term its special significance."
Works in English
- Kanafani, Ghassan (Translated by Hilary Kilpatrick): Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories [ISBN 0-89410-857-3] 1998.
- Kanafani, Ghassan and Barbara Harlow, Karen E. Riley: Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories. [ISBN 0-89410-890-5] 2000.
- Kanafani, Ghassan, with Roger Allen, May Jayyusi, Jeremy Reed: All That's Left to You [ISBN 1-56656-548-0] Interlink World Fiction, 2004
Works in Arabic
- Note: Some Names are roughly Translated
- mawt sarir raqam 12, 1961 (??? ???? ??? 12, A Death in Bed No. 12)
- ard al-burtuqal al-hazin, 1963 (??? ???????? ??????, The Land of Sad Oranges)
- rijal fi-sh-shams, 1963 (???? ?? ?????, Men in the Sun)
- al-bab, 1964 (?????, The Door)
- 'aalam laysa lana, 1965 (????? ??? ???, A World that is Not Ours)
- 'adab al-muqawamah fi filastin al-muhtalla 1948-1966, 1966 (??? ???????? ?? ?????? ??????? 1948-1966, Literature of Resistance in Occupied Palestine)
- ma tabaqqa lakum, 1966 (?? ????? ???, All That's Left to You)
- fi al-adab al-sahyuni, 1967 (?? ????? ????????, On Zionist Literature)
- al-adab al-filastini al-muqawim taht al-ihtilal: 1948-1968, 1968 (????? ????????? ??????? ??? ???????? 1948-1968, Palestinian Resistance Literature under the Occupation 1948-1968)
- 'an ar-rijal wa-l-banadiq, 1968 (?? ?????? ????????, On Men and Rifles)
- umm sa'd, 1969 (?? ???, Umm Sa'd)
- a'id ila Hayfa, 1970 (???? ??? ????, Return to Haifa)
- al-a'ma wa-al-atrash, 1972 (?????? ???????, The Blind and the Deaf)
- Barquq Naysan, 1972 (????? ?????, The Apricots of April)
- al-qubba'ah wa-l-nabi, 1973 (?????? ??????, The Hat and the Prophet) incomplete
- thawra 1936-39 fi filastin, 1974 (???? 1936-39 ?? ??????, The Revolution of 1936-39 in Palestine))
- jisr ila-al-abad, 1978 (??? ??? ?????, A Bridge to Eternity)
- al-qamis al-masruq wa-qisas ukhra, 1982 (?????? ??????? ???? ????, The Stolen Shirt and Other Stories)
- 'The Slave Fort' in Arabic Short Stories, 1983 (transl. by Denys Johnson-Davies)