تأتأة البطولة في الرواية الفلسطينيّة المتأخرة: دراسة أنثروبوسيميائية

The present study uses the theory of heroizability and its attendant "3Amodel" in order to examine the concept of heroism in the latest stagesof local Palestinian drama. It uses five select plays that reflect all thenew currents in local Palestinian literature. The study shows that in the last three decades Palestinian drama has tended towards greater calmand relaxation, especially in the writings of young authors, who addressed political issues only very indirectly, in contrast to the period from the defeat of 1967 almost to the end of the twentieth century,when the esthetics of struggle and resistance dominated literatureinside Palestine, with respect to themes, styles, structures and forms.The present study shows that subsequently the relations between the text and reality changed and became more varied and complex while the tone of distress and the familiar classical gushing discourse became weaker. The study lays the foundations for this sensitivity, which can be summarized in the following seven points:(1) The individual ego is placed at the center instead of the collective,or at most accompanies it. The individual has become the focus,whereas previously the esthetics of the struggle focused purely on the collective sentiment, on unity in the face of a great rival that requiresus to unite our forces. This focus on the individual is one of the most prominent aspects of contemporary Palestinian novels. (2) Heroism is spread across new intellectual domains, and is no longer the exclusive province of politics. New themes have had a powerful influence, for example feminism. The emotional, enthusiastic tone used in theformation of the image of the "hero" in writings of the 1970s and 1980s has disappeared, a hero who was always victorious on paper, eventhough he suffered defeat in the real world. In the present stage, the hero is realistic, intelligent and mature. (3) The naïve romanticdichotomy between absolute black and absolute white has lost its force.The mechanisms of the conflict have become more varied, profoundand realistic. (4) "Partial heroes" make their appearance. Ultimatelythese testify to the fact that the author was unable to decide whether hisprotagonist was a hero or a non-hero. This partial or intermediate stateis one form of the "stuttering" or hesitation in Palestinian literature, itsrecognition of a "third state" that it did not permit to arise in the previous two stages. A heroism that is hesitant and lacking constitutesa rejection of absolute heroism. (5) This stuttering or hesitation show sthat Palestinian writers have adopted a more realistic view, whichrecognizes that success and failure can coexist. This realistic approach means that a figure is presented first-and-foremost as flesh-and-blood and only then as a fighting political creature. The state of "nonheroism" constitutes a further step away from the artificial type ofheroism that strives to disseminate a spirit of imaginary triumph. (6)The various forms of heroism enable one to move from the meanings of the text to those engendered by the reader, an act of independentjudgment which the text allows and encourages. This in turn means thatmost of the novels considered in the present study are not closed in on themselves and do not impose fixed textual meanings on the reader. (7)Just as the writer is no longer a final authority, so is heroism no longer final, no longer closed within the written text. Most forms of heroismin most of the novels considered here are extended and connected andadopt the logic of continuity. In other words, the habit of ending a novel with a clear-cut break has receded greatly in the present stage of individualism experienced by the Palestinian novel. We are thus of the opinion that optimism is a rational position, untainted by dreamy romanticism.