現代シリア文学における〈パレスチナ〉の表象
当事者と共在者の間
2021 年 37 巻 1 号 p. 69-98
詳細
2021 年 37 巻 1 号 p. 69-98
The purpose of this paper is to examine historically and sociologically the depiction of “Palestine” in contemporary Syrian literature through two important works. Saadallah Wannous, a prominent Syrian dramatist, in his drama Al-Ightisab (1989), focused on two worlds, the Palestinian and the Israeli. In the epilogue of this drama, Wannous emphasized that the Arab regimes were nothing but a replica of the “Zionist entity”, relying upon occupation and oppression. On the other hand, ‘Ali al-Kurdi, a Palestinian who was born and grew up in Syria, published his novel Shamaaya Castle (2010), a work of fiction inspired by his memories of his childhood in the former Jewish quarter of Damascus during the 1950s and 1960s. As an “intermediate supporter” of the Palestinian cause, Wannous tried to demonstrate the various “actualities” of the Palestinian issue for Syrian and Arab audiences. By contrast, in Al-Kurdi’s novel, the author, despite being a veritable “victim” of the Nakba, focused on the diverse dimensions of the “realities” faced by Syrian Palestinians, describing their misery, embarrassment, stigmas, human friendships and tolerance across diverse religious communities. It is obvious that writing this kind of novel is a creative act for building resilience out of past traumatic experiences in Palestine as well as for reevaluating the history of coexistence in Syria.
