Since I was interested in the complex ways in which literary narratives from the Middle East represent the lived experiences of their authors, I was particularly drawn to how linear and nonlinear chronotopes in literature reflect Palestinian exile and displacement. By closely analyzing works such as Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun and Samira Azzam’s The Man and His Alarm Clock, I sought to understand how these authors used the interplay of time and space to reflect their personal and historical connections to the real world, particularly regarding the Palestinian experience of exile.
My research process for this paper involved:
- Analyzing the chronotopic structures in the selected literary works, focusing on the authors’ use of linear and nonlinear temporal settings to reflect the stability and disruption of their lived realities.
- Examining the spatial settings in these works, looking at how descriptive language conveys the authors’ connections to their homelands and the impact of displacement on their sense of identity.
- Reviewing relevant scholarship on Bakhtin’s theory of chronotopes, and how narrative techniques like analepsis and temporal anticipation relate to the historical context of Palestinian exile and displacement.
- Engaging with primary texts in-depth to uncover the authors’ narrative strategies and how they employ both linear and nonlinear time structures to represent their lived experiences as exiles.
This research allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of how time and space in literary narratives can illuminate the psychological and historical impacts of exile and displacement. Through this project, I developed stronger analytical and interpretive skills, along with a greater appreciation for how authors can use narrative techniques to reflect complex real-world experiences.
You can read my paper here.
Learning Significance