Palestine’s YA fiction and identity in Ahlam Bsharat’s Code Name: Butterfly

Abstract

The article addresses a relatively neglected area of research: Palestinian literature for adolescents, adab al-yāfiʿīn [literature for adolescents] or Young Adult (YA) literature. It sheds light on how this literature addresses the unique problematics of growing up under occupation and considers how novels for young adults reflect the Palestinian teenager's consolidation of his or her identity in relation to the political and social conditions imposed by oppression. The essay surveys the phenomenon of Palestinian YA literature and focuses on a reading of Ahlam Bsharat’s novel Code Name: Butterfly [Ismī al-ḥarakī farāsha]. Bsharat's work is unique in the relatively limited tradition of Palestinian YA literature in its avoidance of ideology and didacticism, and in its attempt to turn the text itself into a holding space for Palestinian teens. Analysis shows how Butterfly legitimizes the experiences of young adults and gives voice to their lived experience.