Ghassan Kanafani

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Ghassan Kanafani ( Arabic غسان فايز كنفاني, DMG Ġassān Fāyiz Kanafānī ; * April 9, 1936 in Akka ; † July 8, 1972 in Beirut ) was a Palestinian writer , journalist and politician.

Kanafani is considered one of the most important contemporary Arab writers. As the author of numerous short stories and short novels, he was received throughout the Arab world . His work is considered innovative for modern Arabic literature in many areas . His novels and many of his short stories are available in German translation. Politically, he appeared as a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine , for whose press organs he also had editorial responsibility.

Life

Kanafani was born on April 9, 1936 in Acre , in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine . Kanafani's family belonged to the lower middle class there. His father worked as a lawyer and was arrested several times by the British for political activity. Kanafani received his primary education in a French-speaking Catholic primary school in Jaffa. In 1948 his family fled to Syria via Lebanon and lived there in a refugee camp . In Damascus, he completed his education at a UNRWA secondary school . From 1953 to 1956 he worked there as a teacher. He then got a job as a sports and art teacher in Kuwait. During this time Kanafani joined an underground communist group.

In 1960 he returned to Lebanon. There he worked as an editor for various Nassist newspapers. In 1962 he married Anni Høger, who had been active in the Danish resistance against National Socialism. The following year, Kanafani received Lebanese citizenship.

From 1969 he worked as editor-in-chief of the PFLP's party newspaper, al-Hadaf. He also acted as their political spokesman from then on. On July 8, 1972, Kanafani and a niece were killed by a car bomb attached to his car. The Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad was blamed for the crime. He neither confirmed nor denied this allegation.

Literary activity

For Kanafani, literature was not just l'art pour l'art . It fulfilled a specific socio-political role. The debate about littérature engagée triggered by Jean-Paul Sartre was also conducted in the post-colonial Arab world under the Arabized name al-adab al-multazim (committed literature). Kanafani followed the debate and called for an iltizām (commitment) to Arab nationalism in accordance with his own political convictions . By this he understood in particular adab al-muqāwama (resistance literature ) against Israel . Revolution, liberation nationalism, anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism shape the theme of his work. Nonetheless, Kanafani was accused of a lack of iltizām within Arab literary criticism . His innovative style broke with well-known patterns of prose oriented by Socialist Realism , which was decisive for Arabic literature, especially in the 1950s.

Motifs

Kanafani uses a number of recurring motifs in his short stories and novels. These motifs are partly linked to newer forms of Arabic literature such as the Arabic Bildungsroman, and partly to very traditional images that had already existed in pre-Islamic Qasids.

The Palestinian farmer

The peasant was a popular motif in Arabic educational novels of the 20th century. With it social backwardness, ignorance and poverty were represented, which could be overcome with the help of education. In this literary genre, the farmer is considered the antithesis of modernity.

The farmer also plays a central role at Kanafani. He is organically linked to his land and faces the landowners and, to a lesser extent, the city dwellers. There is no explicit criticism of his living conditions, but his economic dependence on the landowners. A glorification of rural poverty is not found in Kanafani either. The farmer's ability to withstand hardship, on the other hand, is considered an ideal.

In his short stories in particular, Kanafani describes episodically the clashes between Palestinians, British and Zionist organizations using peasant figures or portrays the lives of uprooted residents of the refugee camps. The farmer is the ideal type of Palestinian. Central to Kanafani's work is the figure Umm Saad , a patient, strong and persevering farmer who gives the other camp residents hope for the future. On the one hand, the motive of the farmer is politically motivated. Kanafani uses it to make clear both the necessity of national liberation and the abolition of the class relationship on the other hand, it probably reflects the psychologically justified search for identity in the form of a closeness to popular traditions of the exile author.

The desert

The desert is a strong theme in several of Kanafani's short stories and novels. The desert is particularly central in the stories Men in the Sun and What Remains You . The desert was a central motif in pre-Islamic Qasids . In contrast to the extravagant descriptions of nature in ancient Arabic poetry, the desert near Kanafani is not a familiar place. It is the antithesis of the city and the country in which the Palestinians lived and is presented as a dangerous and hostile area. It serves Kanafani as a symbol for the current situation of the Palestinians, who have to cross the desert to return to the world.

weapons

Like the desert, the relationship between man and weapon is a well-known motif of ancient Arabic poetry. Guns appear at Kanafani in clashes between the Palestinians and Zionist organizations. Their owners often have a close relationship with their weapons, which makes them subjects capable of action. In the short story The Machine Gun , the protagonist buys a modern machine gun to defend his village with his blood, which he brings to a blood bank.

Literary criticism

Kanafani was also active as a literary critic. He is considered to be the discoverer and promoter of modern Palestinian literature, especially that produced within Israel. In Arab literary criticism, the literature of the diaspora Palestinians was long considered immature, emotional and tearful. The image of Palestinian literature changed as Kanafani in 1966 and 1968 two treatises with the titles ʾ Adab al-muqāwama fī Filasṭīn al-muḥtalla (Resistance literature in occupied Palestine) and Al-ʾadab al-filasṭīnī l-muqālāl (Palestinian literature. Palestinian under the occupation). In them he discussed for the first time the works of today's well-known Palestinian poets who worked within Israel, such as Mahmud Darwisch , Salim Joubran or Tawfiq Ziad . Kanafani emphasized the importance of these authors who, in his eyes, were truly "committed" in relation to Arab literature that understood itself to be "committed".

Kanafani also pioneered the study of Israeli literature. As the first Arabic author, he dealt intensively with the themes and motifs of New Hebrew prose.

Political activity

At the beginning of his adult life, Kanafani sympathized with the SSNP , and from the 1950s onwards oriented himself towards Arab nationalism. In 1955 he joined the Arab Nationalists Movement (BAN). The anti-Zionism stood in the center of his political interest. Like the majority of Palestinians at the time, he saw pan-Arabism as the only way to eradicate Israel and solve the Palestinian problem . A united force of Arab armies was to recapture Palestine. In this context, Kanafani criticized the then marginal PLO under Yasser Arafat's Fatah at the end of the 1960s :

“Only a self-sufficient, united and strong military power that can put Israel under pressure on all fronts is the solution. Brave guerrillas, brave Palestinian groups are necessary in the struggle to regain Palestine, but such activities cannot liberate Palestine because we live in the age of missiles today. A Palestinian can be a great Fidai , a heroic fighter, but that alone is not enough, however painful this truth may be. "

During his stay in Kuwait between 1956 and 1960, Kanafani had turned to Marxism-Leninism . Since then, the national liberation of Palestine has been a form of class struggle for him, the aim of which was the establishment of a socialist society. At that time, however, he described national liberation as the top priority, to which the class struggle should be subordinated until it was implemented in the sense of a truce.

He moved to Beirut in 1960 at the request of George Habash , who won Kanafani as editor for the newspaper al-Ḥurrīya (Freedom), the main platform of Nasserism outside Egypt at the time. In 1963 he moved to the also Nassist newspaper al-Muḥarrir (The Liberator) as editor-in-chief . Kanafani also worked there as a political essayist with a weekly column and published the bi-monthly supplement Filistīn (Palestine).

After the defeat of the Arab armies in the Six Day War in 1967, the movement of Arab nationalists split into various splinter groups, including the PFLP. The latter also joined Kanafani. Unlike the BAN before it, the PFLP took a decidedly Marxist standpoint. Kanafani now also publicly showed a class struggle profile. He and the PFLP saw themselves as anti-Soviet and Maoist . In the past two years Kanafani had traveled to China twice. There he came into contact with representatives of the Vietnamese liberation movements, whom he met at an international conference in the People's Republic and whose successes in the fight against the United States impressed him.

reception

Kanafani graffiti in Palestine

Kanafani's political and literary reception continues to the present day. Kanafani is still an important political figure in the PFLP environment. Graffiti and portraits of Kanafani can be found especially in the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank. Parades and summer camps are held in his memory at irregular intervals. In 1974 the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation was founded in Beirut to support kindergartens and rehabilitation centers in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Reception in the Arabic-speaking world

Numerous publications of Kanafani's works appeared, especially in the Arabic-speaking world: The Arabic complete edition Al-Āṯār al-kāmila (The Complete Works ) comprises four volumes and appeared between 1972 and the mid-1990s. The volumes include his short stories, plays, and literary treatises. The complete edition was published with the collaboration of Kanafani's wife Anni Høger. Other Arabic authors such as Ilyās Ḫūrī, Kāmil Nāṣir and Imīl Ḥabībī were literarily influenced by Kanafani's works. The well-known Palestinian poet Maḥmūd Darwīš wrote an elegy on Ghassan Kanafani. With his works Kanafani conveyed a search for home, both physically and spiritually. He connects the Palestinian people's search for identity with their relationship to the country and puts them on one level. Kanafani managed to awaken hope among the Palestinians with his works.

Reception in the west

Even outside of the Arab-Islamic world, Kanafani became well known after his death. In the German-speaking countries in particular, Kanafani's works have been published in various translations and editions since the 1970s. Ghassan Kanafani is one of the few Arabic writers whose prose works are entirely in German. The most extensive German translation series was published by Lenos Verlag in the mid-1980s. Four volumes were published with a total of six short stories by Kanafani. The translators for these issues were Hartmut Fähndrich and Veronika Theis.

Reception within Arabic studies

On the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of his death, some German Arabists organized a symposium under the title Men under the Deadly Sun - Ghassan Kanafani's Works Today . Among them Wolfdietrich Fischer , Stefan Wild and Hartmut Fähndrich . Among other things, the following topics were taken up: Kanafani's literary and political work after the 1967 war, the question of the relationship between realism and symbolism in Kanafani's works, the investigation of stylistic devices in riǧāl fi-š-šams (men in the sun), the Influence of William Faulkner on Kanafani and his works as well as the analysis of autobiographical elements within the short stories.

The Arabist Stefan Wild is considered to be one of Kanafani's first German recipients. In 1975 Wild wrote the essay Ghassan Kanafani - The Life of a Palestinian , based on his inaugural lecture at the University of Amsterdam , in which he analyzed Ghassan Kanafani in terms of his regional and contemporary historical context. Wild identifies William Faulkner and Noam Chomsky as influential literary role models for Kanafani.

Reception in the theater

In the performing arts, there have been some adaptations of Kanafani's most famous works. Both Palestinian and Israeli theaters dealt with the short stories. The Jenin-born Palestinian actor and director Ahmed Tobasi staged Images from the life of Ghassan Kanafani at the Freedom Theater in Jenin in 2016, a compilation of the lives of Kanafanis. The most important themes and motifs of his greatest works were put together in a play. The Drama Academy in Ramallah staged the short novel Men in the Sun in 2014, directed by the Palestinian author and theater maker Bashar Murkus . Murkus emphasized the representation of the effort and powerlessness to which the Palestinians succumb. The Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv was the first Israeli theater to stage Return to Haifa, based on a translation by Boaz Gaon. The director was the Israeli actor Sinai Peter. Kanafani's plays have also been implemented in the German theater context. In 2017, the stages of the city of Gera performed an adaptation of Kanafani's fairy tale The Princess and the Little Lantern as a puppet theater.

Works

Arabic complete edition

  • Ġassān Kanafānī: Al-āṯār al-kāmila 1. Ar-riwāyāt , Bairūt, 1972.
  • Ġassān Kanafānī: Al-āṯār al-kāmila 2. Al-qiṣaṣ al-qaṣīra , Bairūt, 1982.
  • Ġassān Kanafānī: Al-āṯār al-kāmila 3. Al-masraḥīyāt, Bairūt , 1993.
  • Ġassān Kanafānī: Al-āṯār al-kāmila 4. Ad-dirāsāt al-adabīya , 19XX.

German translations

Web links

literature

  • CF Audebert: Choice and Responsibility in Rijāl fī al-shams . In: Journal of Arabic Literature 15 (1), 1984, doi: 10.1163 / 157006484X00069 .
  • Aida Azouqa: Ghassan Kanafani and William Faulkner: Kanafi's Achievement in "All That's Left to You" , in: Journal of Arabic Literature , 31 (2), Leiden 2000.
  • Wolfdietrich Fischer (ed.): Men under a deadly sun. Ghassan Kanafani's work today. Wuerzburg 1995.
  • Hilary Kilpatrick: Tradition and Innovation in the Fiction of Ghassan Kanafani , in: Journal of Arabic Literature , 7, Leiden 1976.
  • Verena Klemm : Literary engagement in the Arab Middle East. Concepts and Debates. Wuerzburg 1998.
  • Stefan Wild : Ghassan Kanafani. The life of a Palestinian . Harrassowitz Verlag , Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01667-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfdietrich Fischer (ed.): Men under the deadly sun. Ghassan Kanafani's work today . Würzburg 1995, p. 7th ff .
  2. ↑ a b Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani. The Life of a Palestinian . Wiesbaden 1975, p. 11 ff .
  3. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 16 f .
  4. ^ Stefan Wild: Kanafani . S. 17 .
  5. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 18 .
  6. ↑ n.v .: The Killing of Kanafani . In: Journal of Palestine Studies . 1st edition. No. 2 . Berkeley 1972, p. 149 .
  7. ↑ Verena Klemm: Literary engagement in the Arab Middle East. Concepts and Debates . Würzburg 1998, p. 155 ff .
  8. ↑ Verena Klemm: Literary engagement in the Arab Middle East . S. 170 .
  9. ↑ Aida Azouqa: Ghassan Kanafani and William Faulkner: Kanafani's Achievement in "All That's left to you" . In: Journal of Arabic Literature . tape 31 , no. 2 . Leiden 2000, p. 150-154 .
  10. ^ Hilary Kilpatrick: Tradition and Innovation in the Fiction of Ghassan Kanafani . In: Journal of Arabic Literature . Leiden 1976, p. 59 .
  11. ↑ Hilary Kilpatrick: Fiction of Ghassan Kanafani . In: Journal of Arabic Literature . tape 7 , p. 55 ff .
  12. ↑ Hilary Kilpatrick: Fiction of Ghassan Kanafani . S. 57-60 .
  13. ↑ Hilary Kilpatrick: Fiction of Ghassan Kanafani . S. 60 .
  14. ↑ Verena Klemm: Literary engagement in the Arab Middle East . S. 155 ff .
  15. ↑ Verena Klemm: Literary engagement in the Arab Middle East . S. 163-167 .
  16. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 12 ff .
  17. ^ A b Alexander Flores: The political engagement of Ghassân Kanafânîs . In: Wolfdietrich Fischer (Ed.): Men under deadly sun. Ghassan Kanafani's work today . Würzburg 1995, p. 11-15 .
  18. ↑ Quoted from Alexander Flores: Ghassân Kanafânîs political engagement . In: Wolfdietrich Fischer (Ed.): Men under deadly sun. Ghassan Kanafani's work today . Würzburg 1995, p. 15 .
  19. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 16 f .
  20. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 19 .
  21. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 18 .
  22. ^ Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani . S. 22 .
  23. ^ Youth camp in honor of Ghassan Kanafani concludes in Dheisheh camp "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Retrieved September 20, 2018 (American English).
  24. ^ Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation. ghassankanafani.com, accessed September 20, 2018 .
  25. ^ A b Elias Khoury: Remembering Ghassan Kanafani, or how a nation was born of story telling . In: Journal of Palestine . University of California Press 2013.
  26. ↑ a b Wolfdietrich Fischer: Men under a deadly sun. Ghassan Kanafani's works today . ERGON-Verlag, Würzburg 1995, p. 7-10 .
  27. ^ Ghassan Kanafani's Books in Translation. Retrieved September 20, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Images from the life of Ghassan Kanafani . In: The Freedom Theater . ( Online [accessed September 20, 2018]).
  29. ↑ Account Suspended. Retrieved September 20, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Ayelet Dekel: Cameri Theater's Return to Haifa at Theater J in DC | MidnightEast. Retrieved September 20, 2018 (American English).
  31. ^ Theater & Philharmonic Thuringia: Theater & Philharmonic Thuringia: Event. Retrieved September 20, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Kanafani, Ghassan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES غسان كنفاني (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Arabic writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Akka
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1972
Place of death Beirut