Cultural Contours and Dynamics: A Study of the Palestinian Terrain in Susan Abulhawa’s Mornings in Jenin

Abstract

Made up of shared experiences in the social, historical and political contexts, culture is essentially linked to the identity of an individual or a group. In the Palestinian context, the need of keeping the cultural ethos alive is therefore of utmost importance in the case of Palestinians whose lives are controlled by the Israeli military occupation at both individual and collective levels. Facing the threat of being erased from the world as a distinct ethnic group, Palestinian Arabs cling to their culture, a call unto their very roots. Culture also functions as a potential means of their resistance to the prolonged oppression at Israeli hands. Based on the debut novel by the Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa, entitled Mornings in Jenin, the proposed paper would analyze the repercussions of culture in Palestinian identity formation and resistance