The Hero In The Palestinian Narrarive From 1993 To 2002

This study presents a comprehensive concept about the image of the hero in the Palestinian version-in West Bank, Gaza Strip and the occupied territories of 1948. The study covers the periods of 1993 up to 2002 in which an obvious pressure has affected the life of the Palestinians as well as their just cause, being described as a period of peace. This means that such a study portrays the Palestinian society with its people and intellectuals along with the way they cope with it and their reactions and responses towards its variables and effects. The systimaticness of this research is based on the ground of making use of other similar studies presented in this respect. It also makes attempts to supplement the efforts embodied in such studies; it mainly depends on established studies in the area of the Arab and international narration- which have focused on the character and the hero, in particular. Besides, the study registers narrative texts published in Palestine relevant to the period in which such a research has started. It looks for common grounds where most of the images of heroism presented in these novels meet, without taking into account the artistic maturity as a basis of selection, whereas the descriptive approach is the main criterion employed to describe the images of heroism in the chosen novels. The nature of this research requires that its material should be distributed between: introduction, preface, four chapters and a conclusion. In the preface, this study pursues the historical track of the hero in different literary forms: of biographies, epics, myths and literary schools which include classicism, romanticism and realism. This leads to a turning point in the traditional notion of heroism and its connotations to gain the significance over the lay man, this is evident in the transition from the traditional literary forms towards the literary schools which gradually paved the way for the vanishing of heroism in the modern narrative text. In the FIRST CHAPTER, entitled ‘Hero of the period’, this study presents five images of heroism: the hero as a leader, the hero as a negotiator, the hero as a band, the negative and dubious hero. All of these heroes appeared over defeated, as if they were in a great dilemma, in accord with the reality that seemed unexpectedly disappointing. As for the SECOND CHAPTER, entitled ‘The Hero of political trend’, the research deals with three kinds of heroism: heroism of the Islamic trend with its fanatic and temperate images, heroism of political inconsistency, heroism of being non-aligned ideologically. All of these heroes were presented in authors’ experiences of narrative texts and their political ideologies. Among the heroes present in this research, the Islamic hero appears to get out of the circle of disappointment which encompassed others. In THE THIRD CHAPTER, entitled ‘the non-historical hero’, the study presents three kinds of heroism: public heroism, women/land heroism and resistance heroism. They were all marked negatively in spite of being out of the phase of this period. Self-criticism, which dominates over the main characters even the resisting ones, marks these heroes negatively. In the last fourth chapter, entitled ‘the hero as the place’, in which it occupies the leading role. In this chapter, the study deals with two aspects of heroism: the place as the homeland vs. The exile, the place and its several connotations. Having negative dimensions, the exile makes the hero/ the place more prominent. On the other hand, the appearance of the homeland doesn’t work in such dimensions, especially as its features have been changed for the home returning figures after Oslo Treaty. The conclusion, presents the results of the study as well as the new information added to the works of the former researchers in this field.