An Analysis of the Short Story Collection and Characters of Ghassan Kanafani's "The World That Is Not Ours"

Abstract

This study aims to examine the characters in Gassân Kenefânî’s Bizim Olmayan Âlem from a detailed and holistic perspective. Kenefânî is recognized as an important representative of modern Arab literature and a pioneer of resistance literature. A qualitative methodology was employed in this research, analyzing the text from both technical and thematic perspectives. In the technical analysis, aspects such as plot structure, character construction and development, setting and time usage, language and stylistic features, narrative techniques, and symbolic expression methods were thoroughly examined. The study evaluates the author’s literary approach in relation to the characters’ internal conflicts, emotional responses, cognitive processes, social environment, and family relations. Kenefânî establishes a unique structure in terms of plot and setting. He employs both real and imaginary frameworks of time and space to effectively reflect the psychological and social worlds of the characters. Settings are often chosen as enclosed spaces that emphasize characters’ loneliness and internal conflicts, while houses, streets, and public spaces provide realism to the narrative. Time is utilized with flashbacks, where past experiences, collective memory, and personal traumas become key elements shaping both character behavior and the course of the story. The use of narrators and perspectives in the work is diverse. While the observer narrator is predominantly employed, Kenefânî also utilizes subjective and plural narrators. A divine or omniscient perspective presents events and relationships among characters from a broad viewpoint, adding thematic and psychological depth to the stories. Kenefânî masterfully applies dialogue, interior monologue, flashbacks, descriptive passages, letters, and leitmotif techniques to deeply convey characters’ mental states, conflicts, and social positions. The author’s language and style further enhance the narrative’s impact. Kenefânî uses clear and accessible language while occasionally incorporating colloquial expressions to bring authenticity and naturalness to the text. His style carries a critical and pessimistic tone, highlighting social events, individual lives, and deficiencies in human relations. Simultaneously, he adopts a philosophical approach, focusing on human nature, the meaning of life, the individual-society relationship, and existential questions, which are often left unresolved, encouraging readers to draw their own conclusions. The stories also display thematic richness. Themes such as loneliness, belonging, family bonds, relationships with animals, migration, war, poverty, and social injustice are treated in an interconnected manner. Through the characters, these themes are materialized, linking belonging and identity quests with loneliness, and migration and societal trauma with social responsibility. The forced migration, political transformations, and societal fractures in Palestine directly influence Kenefânî’s characters’ psychology and literary approach, rendering the characters symbolic figures representing both individual suffering and collective memory. In Kenefânî’s works, characters carry the weight of the past and the uncertainty of the future, representing both individual and societal dimensions through themes of belonging, loss, resistance, rootlessness, and social responsibility. Thus, the stories not only serve as a literary reflection of the traumas experienced by the Palestinian people but also reveal the ideological foundations of identity and resistance struggles. The author’s journalistic and intellectual identity, his efforts to raise national consciousness, and his personal experiences reflected in his works foster deep empathy and social awareness in the reader through his characters. In conclusion, Gassân Kenefânî’s Bizim Olmayan Âlem holds a unique place in modern Arab literature due to the multi-layered structure of its characters, thematic depth, narrative techniques, and symbolic language. This study aims to render Kenefânî’s characters visible in both individual and societal contexts, interpret them from the perspective of resistance literature, and highlight the aesthetic and ideological contributions he makes to modern Arab literature.