ABSTRACT
The Nakba and its consequences pervade Ghassan Kanafani’s work. His novels and short stories have played a significant role in defining how the Palestinian experience is understood after the Nakba. In the short stories I have chosen to examine, I discuss how the homeland and memories of its loss have been morphed into objects, such as a clock, an orange and a can of lentils. These objects evolve to become triggers of the memory of loss, icons in their own right. As with al-Ali and Darwish, Kanafani was born in mandate Palestine and vividly remembers the night of expulsion. I will discuss his short novella, All That’s Left to You, and his short stories, “Land of Sad Oranges,” “Beyond the Horizon of the Gate,” and “A Present for the Holiday.”
