3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies – Vol 17(Special Issue): 109 - 119 / 109 Narrating the Nation and its Other: The Emergence of Palestine in the Postcolonial Arabic Novel YAHYA HASSAN ALWADHAF NORITAH OMAR A�STRA�T A�STRA�T The Palestinian novel is one of the most neglected, if not totally ignored, genres in postcolonial and postmodern narrative fiction. As a resistant narrative, this literary form aims at creating ‘a nation in words’ and constructing ‘a country in books’ since it has disappeared from maps. There are many Palestinian novelists, both males and females, who are struggling for existence in a world totally hostile to them and to their nation. However, it is Ghassan Kanafani (1939-72) who first gave voice to the voiceless and silent people of Palestine. He wrote many novels in which his sole aim was to narrate his nation. This paper evaluates ‘Men in the Sun’ as a “national” Palestinian form which aims to represent the Palestinian “nation”. Taking Anderson (1991) and Bhabha (1990)’s theoretical assumptions about the historical relationship between the nation and the novel into account, we would argue that ‘Men in the Sun’ represents a Palestinian dream of giving expression to the national longing for a form. Edward Said ‘ s theory about resistance literature is crucial in this context. The discussion concludes by considering the novel as an example of a narrative of resistance. Key words: Zionism; displacement; resistance; historiography; Palestine historiography; Palestine ; Palestine INTRODU�TION The idea of the nation as an imagined comm�nit� is at the center of the relationshi� bet�een as an imagined comm�nit� is at the center of the relationshi� bet�een nation and narration in the context of the �ostcolonial Arabic novel in general and in the Palestinian novel in �artic�lar. This centralit� of the conce�t of nation s�rings from the fact that the Palestinian �eo�le �ere not �ermitted to tell their stor� and to narrate the realit� of their nation to the �orld. The Israeli master-narrative denied them the “�ermission to narrate” to �se Ed�ard Said’s �hrase. According to s�ch narrative� the Palestinian �eo�le the Palestinian �eo�le the Palestinian �eo�le do not exist at all. Golda Meir� the former Zionist Prime Minister (1969-1974) �as re�orted in The Sunday Times as sa�ing: There �as no s�ch thing as Palestinians. When �ere there an inde�endent Palestinian �eo�le �ith a Palestinian state? It �as either so�thern S�ria before the First World War� and then it �as a Palestine incl�ding Jordan. It �as not as tho�gh there �as a Palestinian �eo�le in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian �eo�le and �e came and thre� them o�t and took their co�ntr� a�a� from them. The� did not exist. F�rthermore� she declared in one of her s�eeches that “the Palestinians did not exist historicall�� had no comm�nal identit� and no national rights” (�a�o�mi & Robin� 2000� �. 249). The Palestinians according to the Zionist media do not exist. The land of Palestine �as