A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba

Nakba-themed anthologies dispel the concept of linear time and chronology. The brutal and abrupt halting of pre-1948 Palestinian life remains a reference point in Palestinian history, memory and literature, as this collection of writings in Saqi Books’ recent publication, “A Map of Absence…”, shows. What has been disseminated is never enough, because among the many narratives shared and made public by the Palestinian people there are millions of other stories waiting to be heard, others have been lost because Zionists have massacred their narrators. In his introduction to the anthology of writing by Palestinian authors and others writing about Palestine, editor Atef Alshaer describes the collection as being “preoccupied with the same unanswered questions concerning the dispossession of the Palestinian people and their conditions of being occupied.” The writers, he says, “inhabit their own stories not only as victims of a major historical injustice, but also as agents in the development of Palestine – the idea and the living reality.” The idea of Palestine and its current reality intertwine precisely due to the fact that there has been no recognition of the ethnic cleansing and colonial violence unleashed upon Palestinians to pave the way for Israel’s creation in Palestine, let alone justice for its victims. While it is possible to identify the main political processes that have shaped Palestinian literature — the Nakba, the Palestinian national movement and anti-colonial struggle, as well as the Oslo Accords and their aftermath — there is a unifying feature common in all strands of writing. The preservation and dissemination of memory is both an incentive to move forward and a reminder of what was stolen. For Palestinians, loss has a different connotation. It is not defeatist, but rather an unfinished stance which seeks to overcome itself and move towards fulfilment.