Trauma, Memory, and the Lebanese Post-War Novel: Beirut’s Invisible Histories in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction

ISBN-13: 9783031491702 / Angielski

Dani Nassif

Spis treści

Chapter 1: Introduction: The War Disappeared in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction

Chapter 2: Trauma Theory, the Lebanese Civil War, and Lebanese Fiction

Chapter 3: Trauma Theory, the Lebanese Civil War, and Lebanese Fiction

Chapter 4: The Disappeared Survivors in Postwar Beirut: Intergenerational Trauma and Inaccessible Memories in al-Iʿtirāfāt

Chapter 5: The Art of Trauma Testimonies: The Credibility of Fictional Accounts in Berytus madῑna taḥt al-arḍ

Chapter 6: Conclusion: Trauma and Invisible Histories in Rabee Jaber’s Fiction

O autorze

Dani Nassif holds a PhD in modern Arabic literature and culture (summa cum laude) and is currently adjunct lecturer at the University of Regensburg, Germany.

Blurb

“Trauma, Memory, and the Lebanese Post-War Novel” marshals profound research into the fictional work of Rabee Jaber to undertake the first in-depth analysis of one of the most innovative contemporary literary voices. The book invites us all to situate ourselves within a post-war fiction that articulates a pressing criticism and envisions the important place of contemporary Arab literature in reflecting our global societies.

– Liliana Gómez, author of Archive Matter. A Camera in the Laboratory of the Modern.

 

Drawing on innovative methodologies and activating a literary-theoretical dialogue across disciplines, involving art and literature, critical theory and Arabic writing, the book contributes to a new approach to the war and postwar literature that connects debates in literary scholarship with those in art and anthropology. It particularly allows us to discover the potential of the Arabic literary text to inform theoretical models on loss and haunting beyond their context and articulation.

 – Tarek El-Ariss, Dartmouth College, author of Trials of Arab Modernity: Literary Affects and the New Political.

 

A first book-length study of Rabee Jaber’s work. Skilfully combining theoretical reflection, close reading of novels, and in-depth analysis of the narrative techniques used to convey a sense of trauma, while constantly tying it to the political-historical context, it opens up new avenues in the way it interrogates literature to talk about Lebanon's ‘invisible histories.’ It thus demonstrates how Arabic fiction contributes to the understanding and processing of traumatic events in post-conflict societies.

– Barbara Winckler, co-editor of Arabic Literature – Postmodern Perspectives

 

Writing the history of the civil war disappeared in Lebanon, as in many post-conflict societies, remains a very challenging task considering the ensuing controversial resolutions. In its close reading of three Lebanese novels by Rabee Jaber, this book follows a multidisciplinary approach to generate methods that contest the impossibility of writing the inaccessible history of those who had gone missing during the war.

Dani Nassif holds a PhD in modern Arabic literature and culture and is currently adjunct lecturer at the University of Regensburg, Germany.