Umm Saad
Umm Saad (Arabic أم سعد, DMG Umm Saʿd ) is the penultimate short novel by the Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani . It was published in Beirut in 1969 under the title Umm Saad - Qiṣṣa filastīnīya ("Umm Saad - A Palestinian Tale"). The German translation by Veronika Theis was published in 1986 in Umm Saad / Return to Haifa - Two Palestinian short novels by Lenos-Verlag in Basel.
| novel | |
|---|---|
| title | Umm Saad |
| Original title | أم سعد |
| country | Lebanon |
| author | Ghassan Kanafani |
| First publication | 1969 |
The work "Umm Saad"
content
The short novel Umm Saad describes an episode in the life of the eponymous character Umm Saad (Eng: the mother of Saad) during the Six Day War in 1967. Umm Saad is a Palestinian and lives in a refugee camp in Lebanon . At the beginning of the story, Umm Saad brings a friend, from whose perspective the story is being told, a vine and plants it in front of his door. The protagonist's son, Saad, was arrested shortly before. He was drawn into the armed resistance. After his release, he joined the fedayeen and took an active part in their fighting. As a child, Umm Saad had already observed the political events and the injustices in their environment. In doing so, she felt the people's frustration that it was not ordinary people who received praise for their hard work, but politicians. Umm Saad and her family are often visited by the angry Efendi , who demands Saad's return, during the course of the story . In the last chapter it becomes clear that a revolutionary mood and readiness for activism has spread to the whole camp. An old man believes that the nakba could have been prevented if his generation had already been equally ready to fight. The vine that was first planted in front of Umm Saad's house has started to sprout.
construction
Umm Saad is divided into nine chapters, which Veronika Theis describes as “narrative sketches”. There are nine separate episodic narratives linked by the storyline.
Character overview
Umm Saad is the eponymous protagonist of the short novel. She is the mother of Saad, a Palestinian guerrilla fighter (Arabic fidāʾī ) and in her forties. Umm Saad is described as imperturbable. She is a passionate mother who does everything for her children. She has a keen sense of justice. She works as a cleaning assistant. Umm Saad is anxious not to accept the status quo and is not satisfied with the abundance of suffering in her life.
Saad is the protagonist's son. He joins the fedayeen in the course of the plot and is described as a man of the word. Saad longs for change and actively tries to bring it about. He has a deep bond with his mother.
Abu Saad is the protagonist's husband and Saad's father. He works hard and is proud of his son who joined the armed resistance. As the story progresses, he becomes more loving and empathetic.
The narrator is an anonymous intellectual and writer and a friend of Umm Saad.
interpretation
In her article on Kanafani for the Critical Lexicon of Contemporary Foreign Language Literature , Veronika Theis writes:
"Umm Saad [is] a multifaceted symbol. It stands for the people, the homeland, the camp, the Palestinian woman and - as the mother of freedom fighters - for a hopeful future."
Strongly symbolic language is used in Umm Saad . One example is the vine as a symbol of fertility and well-being. In the cultural context of Palestine, the vine also stands for the people's deep roots in their land, their steadfastness and resilience. The character of Umm Saad is based on a real existing acquaintance of the author. For Kanafani, she embodies the ideal type of a Palestinian woman and mother. Umm Saad is intended to encourage the Palestinian refugees to resist and at the same time gives them a voice.
Classification in Kanafani's life's work
Umm Saad was published three years before Kanafani's assassination in 1972. The work clearly conveys Kanafani's political concerns. Central is the criticism of the founding of the State of Israel and the expulsion of the Palestinians as well as the desire for armed resistance. The conflict with the Zionists is a motif that can be found in many of his works. Umm Saad is considered a classic of the Palestinian resistance literature.
literature
- Ghassan Kanafani: Umm Saad / Return to Haifa. Two Palestinian short novels. Lenas Verlag Basel 1986. Translated from the Arabic by Veronika Theis and Hartmut Fähndrich.
- Ghassan Kanafani: أم سعد. Rimal Publications, Cyprus, 2013.
- Stefan Wild: Ghassan Kanafani. The Life of a Palestinian. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3447016671 .
- Veronika Theis: Ghassan Kanafani. Ed .: KLFG. Richard Boorberg Verlag GmbH & Co KG.
- Cherrie Moraga, Alexis Jetter, Annelise Orlick, Diana Taylor: The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right. University Press of New England. Hanover, New Hampshire 1997.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Veronika Theis: Ghassan Kanafani . Ed .: KLFG. Richard Boorberg Verlag GmbH & Co KG, S. 5 .
- ↑ Ibid.
- ^ Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian Pioneer Author of Resistance Literature. Retrieved September 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Beate Hinrichs: "The land of sad oranges". SWR, accessed on September 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Cherrie Moraga: The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to Right . Ed .: Dartmouth College. 2nd Edition. University Press of New England, Hanover, New Hampshire, S. 174 .