Taha: The Palestinian Novel: A Communication Study

This book deals with some Arab and Jewish nationalist narratives on nationalism and gender during late Ottoman rule and the British Mandate, a period about which little is known on this subject. It is a book that posits gender analysis as the method through which to analyze Palestinian and Zionist histories and conflicts. This is achieved through deconstructing nationalist texts and studying the Zionist and Palestinian feminist movements and also through the deconstruction of exclusive notions of national “self” and “other”(p. xii). According to the author, a deconstruction of sexual and political identities reveals hidden possibilities of interconnectedness (p. xv). Sheila Katz usefully attempts to read some nationalist narratives from a feminist perspective, an approach rarely applied to either Palestinian or Zionist nationalisms.