Thesis by Sophia Brown
This thesis is an examination of contemporary exilic Palestinian life writing in English. Attenti... more This thesis is an examination of contemporary exilic Palestinian life writing in English. Attentive to the ongoing nature of Palestinian dispossession since 1948, it focuses on how exile is narrated and the ways in which it informs models of selfhood within a context of conflict and loss. Broadly speaking, the thesis conceives of Palestinian life writing as a form of testimony posing an urgent and necessary counternarrative to the hegemony of the Israeli discourse on Palestine/Israel. The thesis examines life writing by different generations of Palestinians, from those who experienced the Nakba of 1948, to those born as second-generation Palestinians in their parents' adopted homelands. It does not limit itself to examining the work of those at a geographical distance from Palestine but also looks at narratives by those who live, or have lived, under Israeli occupation. This has required paying particular attention to the difference between 'internal' and 'external' exile. Recognising that Palestinians who live in Palestine/Israel still sometimes articulate their experience as a form of exiling is an integral aspect of this research. The thesis argues that while the ongoing conflict impacts the identity formation and experiences of all the writers under consideration, nonetheless each author is inevitably guided by distinct geographies, temporalities, imaginings and frames of reference, which ultimately determine their relationship to Palestine and what it means to consider themselves exiled. I am, therefore, particularly mindful of the plurality of exilic experience, even while ideas of communality are still hugely important.
The thesis consists of three author-led chapters - on Edward Said, Ghada Karmi and Rema Hammami - followed by a final chapter on anthologised life writing, which looks at the work of seven authors. Raising questions of form and how one deals with both the commonality and complexity of exile, this final chapter aims to show recent developments in English-language Palestinian life writing. By demonstrating the distinct ways in which exiled Palestinians relate to Palestine/Israel, this thesis seeks to contribute in particular towards two areas of study that have, for the most part, failed to engage substantially enough with Palestine (or, indeed, with each other): postcolonial and auto/biography studies. These subfields of cultural criticism and their wealth of scholarship therefore provide the necessary tools for this research, but they are also held to account for the relative lack of attention paid to Palestine and the extant nature of the conflict. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate that exilic Palestinian life writing sheds its own light on matters of great import to postcolonial and auto/biography studies - matters such as statelessness, belonging, testimony, selfhood and self- representation - and that there are intersecting aesthetic and ethical reasons for ensuring the visibility of Palestine within these areas of study.
I was awarded my PhD in 2017. I am currently developing the thesis into a book, which will build on this research to also consider the wider context of how Palestinian life writing is published and what this reveals about the ongoing conflict.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles And Book Chapters by Sophia Brown
Post-Millennial Palestine: Memory, Narration, Resistance, 2021
Recent crises in the post-millennial period, in particular the wars on Gaza and the intensificati... more Recent crises in the post-millennial period, in particular the wars on Gaza and the intensification of Israeli state violence, have seen a marked increase in Palestinian narrative responses, notably in the form of English-language anthologies, such as Seeking Palestine (Johnson and Shehadeh 2013), Letters to Palestine (Prashad 2015), and This is Not a Border (Soueif and Hamilton 2017). Life writing is an integral aspect of these anthologies and such works follow the proliferation of single-author texts during the previous quarter-century or so. This chapter examines this growing trend towards anthologising Palestinian life writing in the twenty-first century. Often to a greater extent than single-author texts, anthologies underscore the fact that whilst the predicaments faced by Palestinians are individually experienced, they are widespread and shared. In this respect, anthologies explicitly express that which so often defines Palestinian narratives as they navigate the personal alongside the wider concerns engendered by ongoing conflict: the collective. What is particularly notable is that because these anthologies are often articulated as responding to a specific crisis or degradation in the circumstances of Palestinians, they are committed to a vision that explicitly looks forward; in this respect, their narration of past and present injustices are voiced alongside what a more equitable future would look like.
The chapter has two aims. Firstly, it examines the impetus behind key anthologies, as articulated by their respective editors. Secondly, it examines in detail two distinct examples of anthologised life writing by Mischa Hiller and Randa Jarrar, in order to demonstrate how short-form life writing leads to a concentrated focus on a single dilemma, or a memorable snapshot of a pivotal moment, through which Palestinian life writers scrutinise key topics. Ultimately the chapter argues that anthologised Palestinian life writing is a form of literary testimony, building on the existing corpus of single-author works that have similarly drawn attention to the Palestinian predicament.
Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 2017
This article seeks to examine the impact that urban space has had on the development of political... more This article seeks to examine the impact that urban space has had on the development of political consciousness as represented in the autobiographical work of the Anglo-Arab writer, Ahdaf Soueif. The article focuses on Mezzaterra: Fragments from the Common Ground (2004) and Cairo: My City, Our Revolution (2012) in order to argue that Soueif’s broad political affiliations, which extend beyond Egypt, nonetheless emerge from her relationship with the city of her birth, Cairo.
Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, is considered by Israel as part of ... more Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, is considered by Israel as part of their state, and by Palestinians as under occupation. This contested locality is where Rema Hammami, a Palestinian anthropologist and writer, has lived for over 20 years, witnessing escalating Israeli control of the territory. Through an examination of Hammami’s autobiographical essay, “Home and Exile in East Jerusalem” (2013), this article explores the effects of Israel’s colonization of land on Hammami and her community as they struggle to protect their environment. It draws on a paradigm expressed by many critics (including Hammami) of Israeli tactics as a complex system of spatial control. It also assesses various assertions that the spatial politics of Palestine/Israel challenge temporality; in particular, the distinction between — and passage from — colonial to postcolonial. Overall, the article reiterates the relevance of spatial thinking for analysing the conflict and its contested localities, and demonstrates that such thinking is a productive way of reflecting on Palestinian life-writing.
Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest, Dec 2014
Much has been written about the role the internet played during the Arab uprisings of 2011, with ... more Much has been written about the role the internet played during the Arab uprisings of 2011, with particular attention paid to social media, whether Facebook, Twitter or blogging, and the extent to which it contributed to organising the mass protests. Another recurring theme of the analysis of the uprisings was the role played by women, with Western media in particular emphasising their contributions and debating whether this marked a pronounced increase in women’s agency. My article seeks to respond to these issues through an analysis of two Egyptian women’s blogs. Instead of contributing to the well-known debate about the internet’s capabilities for facilitating action, I examine how blogs observe resistance, exploring this through notions of digital testimony and autobiography. I then consider the issue of solidarity and whether this is gendered, which is an important issue to consider in light of the focus placed on women’s roles during the protests. Ultimately I aim to demonstrate that these Egyptian women’s blogs offer us new and productive ways of thinking about the role the internet played during the Arab uprisings and the autobiographical act, leading us to acknowledge the complexities of both solidarity and articulations of selfhood.
Reviews by Sophia Brown
Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 2019
Life Writing, 2018
Review in Life Writing of Literary Autobiography and Arab National Struggles by Tahia Abdel Nasse... more Review in Life Writing of Literary Autobiography and Arab National Struggles by Tahia Abdel Nasser.
If you don't have access to the journal, please message me and I'll email you a copy.
Postcolonial Studies Association newsletter, 2017
A review of Anna Bernard's Rhetorics of Belonging: Nation, Narration and Israel/Palestine.
Conference Presentations by Sophia Brown
East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, has seen the rapid growth of Israeli settlements, ... more East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, has seen the rapid growth of Israeli settlements, alongside the stunting and suffocation of its longstanding Palestinian communities. Inspired by Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence – a violence that is incremental rather than instantaneous – my paper will chart the detrimental effect of Israeli occupation on East Jerusalem’s Palestinians, primarily through an examination of Sari Nusseibeh's memoir Once Upon a Country. In addition, I will also draw on footage from a video project launched by the Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem, which enabled Palestinian Jerusalemites to film their personal experiences of living under occupation. Ultimately, I hope that my paper will contribute to our understanding of what postcolonial disaster means: in this instance a slowly unfolding catastrophe that has huge implications not just for East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents but also for the broader peace process. The idea that disaster is a process rather than an event has clear resonances with the Palestinians’ ongoing plight since the 1948 Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), and it is this parallel process of Israeli slow violence and concomitant Palestinian resistance and endurance that my paper is attentive to.
Returning to one’s lost family home – or attempting to – is an experience frequently narrated in ... more Returning to one’s lost family home – or attempting to – is an experience frequently narrated in Palestinian autobiographical writing. Including Suad Amiry, Edward Said and Raja Shehadeh, there is a wide range of writers who have documented what is understandably a pivotal experience for those who are able to undertake such a journey. Considered against the backdrop of persistent Palestinian calls for the right of return for those who had to flee historic Palestine, these personal journeys are inevitably inseparable from the emotional charge of those calls and the ongoing conflict. Through an examination of two autobiographical texts, In Search of Fatima by Ghada Karmi and Jerusalem Memories by Serene Husseini Shahid, my paper seeks to analyse this moment of return after a long and enforced absence. For both writers, visiting the city of their birth is a highly significant experience, forcing them to come to terms with the huge changes to the places within Jerusalem that they were most familiar with before fleeing. Ultimately, there is an acute – and painful – awareness on the part of both writers of the permanence of their estrangement from the city after a life lived in exile from it. My paper traces this process of coming to terms with both the changes to the writers themselves and to the city and reflects on how attachments to home and to Jerusalem are deeply symbolic within the Palestinian context.
Qalandia checkpoint, the main entryway into Jerusalem from the West Bank, is a space that perpetu... more Qalandia checkpoint, the main entryway into Jerusalem from the West Bank, is a space that perpetuates the inequality of Israeli occupation. But it also produces everyday acts of resistance and sumud – steadfastness – as those Palestinians at Qalandia demonstrate determination to make the punishing journeys through controlled space, thus ultimately challenging the ethos of dispossession that underpins the occupation. Drawing on the work of Palestinian academics Rema Hammami and Helga Tawil-Souri, who have both written in detail about their own experiences at Qalandia checkpoint, my paper examines these personal narratives to claim that such experiences are emblematic of today’s battle on the part of the Palestinians, both to remain on the land and to travel through it.
Much has been written about the role the internet played during the Arab uprisings of 2011, with ... more Much has been written about the role the internet played during the Arab uprisings of 2011, with particular attention paid to social media and blogging as a means to instigate protest. Another recurring theme of the analysis of the uprisings was the role played by women, with Western media in particular emphasising their contributions and debating whether this marked a pronounced increase in women’s agency. My paper seeks to respond to these issues by examining how blogs can observe resistance, exploring this through notions of digital testimony and autobiography. I will then consider the issue of solidarity and whether this is gendered, which is an important issue to consider in light of the focus placed on women’s roles during the protests. Ultimately I aim to demonstrate that Egyptian women’s blogs can offer us new and productive ways of thinking about the autobiographical act and lead us to acknowledge the complexities of solidarity.
‘One day I’d be in Ramallah cheering as the last Israeli soldiers retreated, under a hail of ston... more ‘One day I’d be in Ramallah cheering as the last Israeli soldiers retreated, under a hail of stones, from the main police station; then, driving home, I’d notice another hilltop being scraped away next to one of the settlements, readying it for “natural growth.”’
These words, written by the Palestinian anthropologist and writer Rema Hammami, encapsulate the contradictions of life in Occupied Palestine: limited freedom, dispossession of land, and the rhetoric of power. My paper seeks to explore the effects that Israel’s colonisation of land has had on Hammami and her local community in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where she has for many decades witnessed ‘the inexorable spread of our unwanted West Jerusalem neighbour-occupiers’. As well as contending with the steady growth of Jerusalem’s Israeli neighbourhoods, Sheikh Jarrah has in recent years – and still to this day – witnessed the violent takeover of Palestinian family homes by ideological settlers intent on possessing the land at any cost. Through an examination of Hammami’s work, my paper will focus on this contestation over land and its effects on the community, as well as the building of the Separation Wall, which has exiled Palestinian Jerusalemites from the West Bank and transformed the topography of the area. Israel’s constant mutation of borders, through altering and extending the Wall’s path, and the tactics used to make daily passage through the checkpoints as difficult as possible, has meant a near-perpetual re-evaluation of space for the Palestinians, who fight a continual battle for both the right to remain on the territory and the right to travel through it. Hammami’s work lucidly details these realities within the context of East Jerusalem, revealing how control at the political and transnational levels has had irrevocable effects on the local and the domestic.
Writing shortly after the Arab Revolutions of 2011, the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif asserted tha... more Writing shortly after the Arab Revolutions of 2011, the Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif asserted that ‘I am not unique; but Cairo is’. This paper seeks to explore the hold that the city has on her and the effect that it has wrought. Its influence is evident throughout her published work, most notably in her more autobiographical writing, in particular her recent memoir Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, a personal account of the uprisings which led to the fall of the Mubarak regime. This paper posits that Soueif’s work is driven by an ethical imperative that determines her subject matter, which has ranged from the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, to the occupation of Palestine, and the invasion of Iraq. Thus, as the recent political circumstances in Egypt became more urgent, so too did Soueif’s attachment to the city of her birth and her desire to write about it. Soueif’s writings on Cairo demonstrate a celebration of cross-cultural exchanges and the importance of finding a common ground in order to survive in a world that continues to change apace due to the collapsing of the local and the global. For Soueif, Cairo is this common ground, and in her autobiographical work, the city figures as both backdrop and character, informing and guiding her prose.
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Thesis by Sophia Brown
The thesis consists of three author-led chapters - on Edward Said, Ghada Karmi and Rema Hammami - followed by a final chapter on anthologised life writing, which looks at the work of seven authors. Raising questions of form and how one deals with both the commonality and complexity of exile, this final chapter aims to show recent developments in English-language Palestinian life writing. By demonstrating the distinct ways in which exiled Palestinians relate to Palestine/Israel, this thesis seeks to contribute in particular towards two areas of study that have, for the most part, failed to engage substantially enough with Palestine (or, indeed, with each other): postcolonial and auto/biography studies. These subfields of cultural criticism and their wealth of scholarship therefore provide the necessary tools for this research, but they are also held to account for the relative lack of attention paid to Palestine and the extant nature of the conflict. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate that exilic Palestinian life writing sheds its own light on matters of great import to postcolonial and auto/biography studies - matters such as statelessness, belonging, testimony, selfhood and self- representation - and that there are intersecting aesthetic and ethical reasons for ensuring the visibility of Palestine within these areas of study.
I was awarded my PhD in 2017. I am currently developing the thesis into a book, which will build on this research to also consider the wider context of how Palestinian life writing is published and what this reveals about the ongoing conflict.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles And Book Chapters by Sophia Brown
The chapter has two aims. Firstly, it examines the impetus behind key anthologies, as articulated by their respective editors. Secondly, it examines in detail two distinct examples of anthologised life writing by Mischa Hiller and Randa Jarrar, in order to demonstrate how short-form life writing leads to a concentrated focus on a single dilemma, or a memorable snapshot of a pivotal moment, through which Palestinian life writers scrutinise key topics. Ultimately the chapter argues that anthologised Palestinian life writing is a form of literary testimony, building on the existing corpus of single-author works that have similarly drawn attention to the Palestinian predicament.
Reviews by Sophia Brown
If you don't have access to the journal, please message me and I'll email you a copy.
Conference Presentations by Sophia Brown
These words, written by the Palestinian anthropologist and writer Rema Hammami, encapsulate the contradictions of life in Occupied Palestine: limited freedom, dispossession of land, and the rhetoric of power. My paper seeks to explore the effects that Israel’s colonisation of land has had on Hammami and her local community in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where she has for many decades witnessed ‘the inexorable spread of our unwanted West Jerusalem neighbour-occupiers’. As well as contending with the steady growth of Jerusalem’s Israeli neighbourhoods, Sheikh Jarrah has in recent years – and still to this day – witnessed the violent takeover of Palestinian family homes by ideological settlers intent on possessing the land at any cost. Through an examination of Hammami’s work, my paper will focus on this contestation over land and its effects on the community, as well as the building of the Separation Wall, which has exiled Palestinian Jerusalemites from the West Bank and transformed the topography of the area. Israel’s constant mutation of borders, through altering and extending the Wall’s path, and the tactics used to make daily passage through the checkpoints as difficult as possible, has meant a near-perpetual re-evaluation of space for the Palestinians, who fight a continual battle for both the right to remain on the territory and the right to travel through it. Hammami’s work lucidly details these realities within the context of East Jerusalem, revealing how control at the political and transnational levels has had irrevocable effects on the local and the domestic.
The thesis consists of three author-led chapters - on Edward Said, Ghada Karmi and Rema Hammami - followed by a final chapter on anthologised life writing, which looks at the work of seven authors. Raising questions of form and how one deals with both the commonality and complexity of exile, this final chapter aims to show recent developments in English-language Palestinian life writing. By demonstrating the distinct ways in which exiled Palestinians relate to Palestine/Israel, this thesis seeks to contribute in particular towards two areas of study that have, for the most part, failed to engage substantially enough with Palestine (or, indeed, with each other): postcolonial and auto/biography studies. These subfields of cultural criticism and their wealth of scholarship therefore provide the necessary tools for this research, but they are also held to account for the relative lack of attention paid to Palestine and the extant nature of the conflict. Ultimately, I hope to demonstrate that exilic Palestinian life writing sheds its own light on matters of great import to postcolonial and auto/biography studies - matters such as statelessness, belonging, testimony, selfhood and self- representation - and that there are intersecting aesthetic and ethical reasons for ensuring the visibility of Palestine within these areas of study.
I was awarded my PhD in 2017. I am currently developing the thesis into a book, which will build on this research to also consider the wider context of how Palestinian life writing is published and what this reveals about the ongoing conflict.
The chapter has two aims. Firstly, it examines the impetus behind key anthologies, as articulated by their respective editors. Secondly, it examines in detail two distinct examples of anthologised life writing by Mischa Hiller and Randa Jarrar, in order to demonstrate how short-form life writing leads to a concentrated focus on a single dilemma, or a memorable snapshot of a pivotal moment, through which Palestinian life writers scrutinise key topics. Ultimately the chapter argues that anthologised Palestinian life writing is a form of literary testimony, building on the existing corpus of single-author works that have similarly drawn attention to the Palestinian predicament.
If you don't have access to the journal, please message me and I'll email you a copy.
These words, written by the Palestinian anthropologist and writer Rema Hammami, encapsulate the contradictions of life in Occupied Palestine: limited freedom, dispossession of land, and the rhetoric of power. My paper seeks to explore the effects that Israel’s colonisation of land has had on Hammami and her local community in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where she has for many decades witnessed ‘the inexorable spread of our unwanted West Jerusalem neighbour-occupiers’. As well as contending with the steady growth of Jerusalem’s Israeli neighbourhoods, Sheikh Jarrah has in recent years – and still to this day – witnessed the violent takeover of Palestinian family homes by ideological settlers intent on possessing the land at any cost. Through an examination of Hammami’s work, my paper will focus on this contestation over land and its effects on the community, as well as the building of the Separation Wall, which has exiled Palestinian Jerusalemites from the West Bank and transformed the topography of the area. Israel’s constant mutation of borders, through altering and extending the Wall’s path, and the tactics used to make daily passage through the checkpoints as difficult as possible, has meant a near-perpetual re-evaluation of space for the Palestinians, who fight a continual battle for both the right to remain on the territory and the right to travel through it. Hammami’s work lucidly details these realities within the context of East Jerusalem, revealing how control at the political and transnational levels has had irrevocable effects on the local and the domestic.