Muhammad Naffāʻ and His Linguistic Distinction

This article focuses on the distinctive characteristics that set the Palestinian writer, Muhammad Naffāʻ (1940-2021), apart from other writers, and on the period during which Naffāʻ was literarily active. This is accomplished through a presentation of critics' views regarding the different literary stages experienced by Palestinian literature, Naffāʻ’s affiliation with one of these stages, and the characteristics of this stage of which Naffāʻ was not only a part but one of its most prominent writers. This article attempts to present the common denominators among Palestinian writers who remained in the territories of (1948), as they have been conventionally termed, at the level of content; and it shows that Naffāʻ’s themes were similar to those of other writers. However, this article demonstrates critics' consensus that what distinguished Naffāʻ was not the content of his stories, as the stories revolved around roughly the same subjects; rather, Naffāʻ was distinguished from others by his unique literary language. This article identifies the specific elements that formed the foundation upon which this language was built. Critics have pointed to two main elements that constituted the most important components of Naffāʻ’s literary language: Palestinian heritage and colloquial language. Naffāʻ relied primarily on these two elements in constructing his language, though to varying degrees. The proportion of these elements increased as Naffāʻ progressed in his creative journey, with these elements beginning to fill the spaces of his pages and thus crystallizing his distinctive style. The unique aspect of Naffāʻ is that the elements upon which his literary style was built accompanied him from the beginning of his literary journey until its end. They appeared in his first story and increased in his last story, though they remained the same elements, even if their prominence varied across his stories. Critics have pointed to these inherent elements in his language, making Naffāʻ the writer distinguished by his language from other writers. This article illuminates this aspect theoretically, while the practical aspect would require another article.