21 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture ISSN 1712-8358[Print] ISSN 1923-6700[Online] www.cscanada.net www.cscanada.org Cross-Cultural Communication Vol. 13, No. 6, 2017, pp. 21-27 DOI:10.3968/9747 Representing a Traumatized Nation in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun Fatima Muhaidat [a],* ; Lana Waleed [b] ; Shadi Neimneh [a] ; Raja’a Al-Khalili [a] [a] Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan. [b] Al Ferdous Secondary School, High School Teacher of English Language, Amman/Shafa Badran, Jordan. *Corresponding author. Received 12 March 2017; accepted 5 May 2017 Published online 26 June 2017 Abstract This article investigates post-colonial trauma in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun (1962), a novella portraying the harsh life and psychological pain of the Palestinians after losing their homeland. The article explores examples of traumatized characters and Kanafani’s techniques of conveying this trauma to the reader. Characters seem to be engulfed in a bleak atmosphere of trauma pervading every aspect of their lives. Symptoms of trauma including hopelessness, confusion, helplessness, anxiety, inability to forget the past, and loneliness show in characters’ behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Struggling with their unbearable despair, they become victims of a smuggler who is also traumatized and rendered impotent by war. The journey made to find a decent life only brings misery, humiliation, and death. Kanafani’s concern about the general public appears in a plot revolving around the needs and frustrations of people coming from a humble social background. Kanafani pinpoints the grave consequences of colonialism which put Palestinian people under nerve- racking conditions. His account may be seen as an attempt to draw attention to the suffering of his fellow citizens, and consequently gain support for their cause. Alternatively, Kanafani may be living in the same trauma his characters suffer from, and thus revisiting it in his fictional retelling of the story of his nation. Key words: Post-colonial trauma; Men in the Sun; Ghassan Kanafani; Arabic literature Muhaidat, F., Waleed, L., Neimneh, S., & Al-Khalili, R. (2017). Representing a Traumatized Nation in Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun. Cross-Cultural Communication, 13(6), 21-27. Available from: http//www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/view/9747 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/9747 INTRODUCTION Ghassan Kanafani is known for his depictions of the Palestinians’ tragedy of losing their homeland, a traumatic experience that touched his heart and changed the lives of almost all Palestinians. After leading a decent life in Palestine, his father being “a prominent lawyer” and starting “his studies at Les Frères, a French missionary school in Jaffa” (Qualey, 2015), he moved to live in the refugee camps in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948. As a writer, he had a big chance to meet a lot of Palestinian refugees who had great suffering. In Men in the Sun [shortened into Men throughout the rest of this article] (1962; trans. 1991), Kanafani deals with the Palestinian post-colonial trauma in the hope of giving voice to those silenced by power inequity, encouraging them to resist colonial policies. He tries to warn such silenced and underprivileged people of giving in to the tensions and pressure resulting from their poor living conditions. While in simple terms trauma means psychological pain or injury caused by an accident or a violent incident, the effects of this traumatic event are long-lasting and take the form of stress, anxiety, neurotic behavior, depression,...etc. Kanafani’s text manifests such trauma symptoms and reactions. Moreover, it might even indicate the writer’s implication in the same trauma of his nation he is writing about. Kanafani dwells on the Palestinian plight in his fictions. Men is probably his most memorable revisiting of this theme of national trauma.