Samira 'Azzam

Ferial Khalifa (University of Manchester)

Ed. by Anna Bernard, King's College London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 6.1.1: Israeli and Palestinian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Anna Bernard (King's College London), Ziad Elmarsafy (King's College London), Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Nora Parr (SOAS, University of London), Rita Sakr (Maynooth University), Anastasia Valassopoulos (University of Manchester)

Dates

Born 1927
Died Aug 1967
Activity 1956-1967

Places

Born in Palestine
Active in Palestine

Activities

Primary

Story-writer

Resources

'Azzam's Works

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The Palestinian short story writer Samira 'Azzam (1927-1967) was one of the first post-Nakba voices to address the effect of the Nakba on the Palestinian people through the short story genre. For this reason, she is considered the pioneer of the Palestinian short story and her work is classified as literature of the Palestinian Diaspora

(Adab al-manfa

). The Palestinian Diaspora refers to the dispersal of eight hundred thousand Palestinians from their homeland (Palestine) in the wake of the 1948 Nakba (or “catastrophe”) and their subsequent displacement in neighboring Arab countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq) and elsewhere. Yet most of 'Azzam's short stories (sixty-nine in total) dwell on gender, social class and their intersections in the Arab world – work for which she is…

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2088 words

Citation: Khalifa, Ferial. "Samira 'Azzam". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13729, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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