‘Rethink the Title of Your Talk, and Possibly its Substance’: On Speaking (out) About Palestine, Genocide, and Genre

Framed by a meditation on border-crossing of people and of texts, this essay reflects on the genre of autofiction in relation to the geopolitical contexts of Palestine and global literary marketplaces, as well as outlining a specific example of academic censorship in the context of the 2023– genocidal war on Gaza. It brings together an examination of Palestinian/diaspora literary texts (including Atef Abu Said’s The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction (2014) and Don’t Look Left: A Diary of Genocide (2023), Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much (2020), Yara Hawari’s The Stone House (2021), Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance (2024) and Isabella Hammad’s Recognising the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative (2024)) with inscriptions of the author’s own experience, through the lens of publishing studies and literary sociology. The essay explores, by and beyond reading, how resistance, solidarity and activism can occur, while remaining cognisant of geopolitical inequities and privilege. With a focus on the genre of ‘autofiction’, this essay articulates personal and professional questions of academic freedom, activism and solidarity in the face of genocide, blending lived experience with book historical approaches.