From Suffering to Resistance: Palestinian Short Stories as Narratives of Collective and Cultural Trauma

The selected Palestinian short stories construct a trauma narrative that moves beyond individual suffering to reveal the collective and cultural dimension of trauma. In line with Kai Erikson’s concept of collective trauma, this study outlines how oppression disrupts family structures, communal bonds, and social life and leaves an entire community marked by rupture. Moreover, it engages with Jeffrey Alexander’s theory of cultural trauma by framing these experiences through symbols, memory, and narrative. Symbols such as the olive tree, the land, and the kufiya function as cultural signifiers that transform personal grief into shared memory and embed communal trauma within a broader historical context. Through textual analysis of selected short stories, this study analyzes how trauma is narrated, mediated, and symbolized. The recurring motifs, narrative structures, and character experiences translate lived suffering into cultural memory. This interpretive approach situates the texts within both literary and sociological frameworks and allows for an interdisciplinary analysis that links trauma theory with cultural representation. Through this framework, the study highlights how Palestinian short fiction not only documents oppression but actively reconstructs identity. It demonstrates literature’s role in mediating trauma, asserting collective experiences, and ensuring that Palestinian voices are carried into global cultural consciousness.