Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature

by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Editor)

Jayyusi presents in English translation a Palestinian world view characterized by intensity, paradox, aspiration, and eloquence. Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature will certainly become indispensable to anyone with a serious interest in contemporary Arab culture. -- Arab Studies Quarterly

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry, Fiction, Anthologies, Middle East

740 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 1992

About the author

Salma Khadra Jayyusi (born 1926 or 1927) is a Jordanian-Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provide translation of Arabic literature into English.

In 1960, she published her first poetry collection, Return from the Dreamy Fountain. In 1970, she received her PhD on Arabic literature from the University of London. She taught at the University of Khartoum from 1970 to 1973 and at the universities of Algiers and Constantine from 1973 to 1975. In 1973, she was invited by The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) invited her for a lecture tour of Canada and the US, on a Ford Foundation Fellowship, in 1973. In 1975, the University of Utah invited her to return as a visiting professor of Arabic literature, and since then she has been based at various universities in the United States.

Reviews

[Hena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I found this book randomly in the library one day. It gives so much insight into the Palestinian struggle. The writers are from across the Palestinian diaspora, and the stories/poems/accounts talk about tons of issues and events. Its an amazing eye-opener that effectively portrays and drives home to the reader the hardships, struggle, and resistance of the Palestinians.

[nomdebuerre · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Bible.

[Nastaliq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. A comprehensive anthology with diverse perspectives.

[James F · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of Palestinian writings from both within Palestine and from the diaspora is divided equally between poetry and prose, mostly short stories with selections from two novels and excerpts from some memoirs. Although I recently read an anthology of Arabic poetry by the same editor, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, there were only eight poets in common between the two books and only three short poems were actually duplicates. This anthology had about 230 poems by over 60 authors; as with the other book the arrangement is alphabetic by name of the author, and despite some unevenness much of the poetry was quite good, although the themes were rather similar and I got a bit tired of all the birds, trees, seas, and suitcases.

The second half contained 25 short stories, all by different authors; as far as I could tell there were no stories duplicated in any of the four other anthologies of Arabic literature I have on my shelf waiting to be read (I'm hoping to finish my project in reading Arabic literature in the next month and a half.) There was less unevenness in the stories than in the poetry -- nearly all were good and although the same themes predominated the approaches were quite different. The book ended with thirteen excerpts from "Personal Accounts"; while most were about the disasters the Palestinians have suffered there were also some about the traditions of Palestine before 1948, the feasts and so forth, which were quite interesting to read.