Skip to Main Content

Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction: Home Matters in the Diaspora

Online ISBN:
9780748676569
Print ISBN:
9780748643424
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press
Book

Post-War Anglophone Lebanese Fiction: Home Matters in the Diaspora

Published online:
24 January 2013
Published in print:
31 October 2012
Online ISBN:
9780748676569
Print ISBN:
9780748643424
Publisher:
Edinburgh University Press

Abstract

This study examines the phenomenon of the post-civil war Anglophone Lebanese fictional narrative by exploring the permutations of ‘homeness’ – the different spaces (homeland, host country, geographical in-betweenness), mental states and ideals – and how all of these interact. It also demonstrates how a collection of stylistically diverse texts characterise a new cultural trend: the founding of a fully fledged variant of foreign-language Lebanese transnational literature in the diaspora. The eleven texts, many of which have reaped international awards, are by Rabih Alameddine, Rawi Hage, Tony Hanania, Patricia Sarrafian Ward, Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, and Nada Awar Jarrar. These authors experienced segments of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) as children and adolescents, as well as uprootedness later on. In their fictions, they reflect on what it means to be Lebanese, both in the post-war period and in an increasingly globalised world. No single definition of home materialises; instead personal and national identities are questioned and an array of possibilities for feeling at home are presented, and are reformulated, as their characters move from childhood to adulthood, from peace to war, and in most instances, from Lebanon to elsewhere, and sometimes from elsewhere back to Lebanon in various scenarios.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close