120605 Comparative Literature 2DW Men in the Sun - Exploring the aspect of border - Certain types of people have

the ability to cross the border and others do not - Middle Eastern border: recent creation (less than 100 yrs old) o Before then, the region that we have now come to know as the Middle East was the Ottoman Empire (Turkish family that ruled the Empire; capitol in Istanbul) Empire extended - The extreme peoples (stateless) who are not allowed to cross the border unless under great peril o Therefore they (the refugees by War of 1948 Israel) try to transform themselves into migrant workers o 700-800 people like them have turned into refugees and escaped into Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt mainly - Text focuses on each of these three men sections that belong to each individual character and expresses their flashes of memory o Distinct fragments of compartmentalization that emerge in these sections - Term: Israeli Arabs (also referred to as 48 Palestinians) o 1967 population: Gaza strip and the west band o In surrounding neighbor Arab countries o Hebrew is very often the first language, if not second - Conditional fragmentation and isolation - Work of recollection/flashback/interior monologue (all of a sudden 3rd person narrative belonging to one of the characters in the story instead of the first person) - Abu Qais: peasant (farmer) in a largely peasant farming agricultural society refugee o Refugee: by definition without a land and therefore a mobile figure (figure of movement and mobility, forced or not) o *** Representative of what happened in 1948 o Can there ever be a society of refugees? o 10 years since the disappearance of Palestine shock and paralysis: unable to do anything to provide for family or contribute to the community. It is in that condition that he was talked into migrating to Kuwait o Fatah: main faction of the POO o Page 21: An almost sexual, erotic imagery of the intimate relationship between Abu Qais and land the connection between the peasant and the land on which he/she works Physical/organic connection to the land: sexual desire in relationship with the land Geography of Arab world, not just Palestine o Dislocated consciousness: does not know where he is when he woke up o Geographic border - Azan: plotter against the state (Palestinian group), persecuted by the police

o Oppressor of the Arab state instead of the Israeli state o Border as a social phenomena o The idea of sovereign territory Marwan: youngest of the three brothers and terrified to be away from home o Family has come to rely on him all of a sudden because of the abandonment of the father o Deeply aware of his own vulnerability in the world but tries to respond in a manly way but fails o Failure of parental figure to provide resentful sons take up responsibility o Generational failure o Failure of entire society to reproduce itself Abul Khaizuran: smuggler o Injured masculinity reflects that there is a crisis with masculinity (the Palestinian people) o *** Themes: escapism (both physically and psychologically), flight, denial (of masculinity)