The Representation of the Mother in the Palestinian Novel: From McDonaldization to Minor Literature.

Résumé

This paper aims to study the representation of “Mother” in the Palestinian novel before and after the signing of the Oslo Accord. Its problem lies in tracing the differences that occur in this representation after the Accord that led to the decline of the general revolutionary space, as well as the decline of the revolutionary rhetoric. In order to achieve this goal, the research presents a theoretical framework based on the propositions of the American sociologist George Ritzer, contained in his well-known book, The McDonaldization of Society. In his book, Ritzer discusses the phenomenon of McDonaldization that is currently prevalent in all societies and in all facets of life. Based on Ritzer’s ideas, this research performs a reading of the representation of the Mother in the Palestinian novel that was issued before the Accord. The research identifies several major changes that occurred in the Palestinian novel in general after the signing of the Accord, and on the representation of the Mother in it in particular. The results of the research indicate that the Palestinian novel issued after the Accord was able, on the part of representing the Mother, to violate or rebel against the previous “Mcdonaldized” repetitive model. It was also capable of providing an alternative representation to the very much canonized one that prevailed for many years before the signing of the Oslo Accord in the early nineties of the last century.            It is hopefully anticipated that this paper be a starting point for future studies to further investigate the changes in the representation of the mother’s image in Palestinian novels in general, and in novels written by Palestinian females in particular. Likewise, it is anticipated that the approach used in this paper will be invested again in studies that review the representation of the hero/heroine who never fails to bring a presumed salvation to his/her Palestinian people and then study how this folkloric representation has changed after the Accord.