التراث في أدب محمّد نفّاع؛ مجموعات: "الأصيلة"، "ودّيّة"، "ريح الشّمال" و"كوشان" نموذجًا: مقالة سيميائيّة تطبيقيّة

Abstract

This study examines heritage in general, addressing its significance in the histories and cultures of peoples, as well as its role in preserving local knowledge and transmitting it to future generations. Heritage is an important aspect of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel, deemed critical for safeguarding their national, cultural, and historical identity, especially amid serious threats of dissolution and assimilation into the culture of the Israeli Jewish majority. More particularly, this study delves into the topic of heritage as presented by the Palestinian minority writer Muhammad Naffaʿ, who extensively employed it in his literature, both longitudinally and laterally.

Recognising the critical importance of heritage in shaping Palestinian collective identity and preserving its foundations, Naffaʿ highlights the customs, traditions, values, and ethics that unite these people, including history, geography, literature, attire, commensality, public events, lifestyle, and folk proverbs and tales. Naffaʿ distinguishes himself from other writers by dedicating a substantial portion of his work to Palestinian heritage, employing this theme from the beginning of his literary career to its end—from the collection Al-ʾAṣīlah [The Original] (1975) to Ghubār al-Thalj [The Snow Dust] (2019)—and keeping it a central theme in his other literary texts. This study focuses on the short story Collections Al- ʾAṣīlah (1976), Widdiyyah (1976), Reeḥ al-Shamāl (1978), and Kūshān (1980), as a model of this conscious and intentional use of heritage, demonstrating that this theme occupies most of the collection’s pages and that this phenomenon, which characterises Naffaʿ’s literature, is not spontaneous but rather a conscious act.