The acclaimed Palestinian writer Adania Shibli reflects on the challenges and possibilities of narrating the Palestinian experience. Speaking with profound insight, Shibli discusses the fragmented nature of Palestinian storytelling, shaped by historical trauma and the ongoing reality of violence and displacement.
“Growing up in Palestine, the clarity of narration—a clear beginning, middle, and end—is not accessible,” Shibli notes. Instead, Palestinian storytelling is marked by hesitation and what she describes as “a stutter in narration.” This uncertainty, she explains, reflects the difficulty of pinpointing a starting point in a story steeped in decades, even centuries, of conflict and loss.
Shibli recounts a poignant moment from her time as a translator for Scandinavian journalists in a refugee camp near Nablus. She recalls a woman, Selma, who insisted on emphasizing the loss of her burned identity card amid the devastation of her home. “For Selma, that was the most important,” Shibli observes, contrasting this personal focus with the broader narratives privileged by outsiders.
This tension between personal and collective histories shapes Shibli’s literary approach. “Writing allows you to move beyond the limits of reality,” she explains, describing fiction as a space where marginalized voices and overlooked details find expression. She contrasts the “broken narrative” of those who experience pain and displacement with the “perfect narrative” of those in positions of power, challenging readers to question which stories deserve to be told and how.
For Shibli, silence is both an oppressive force and a space of potential. “Silence doesn’t disappear,” she says. “It becomes more available to you, allowing a dignified relation between your words and the possibilities of language.” In this way, Shibli views writing as an act of transformation—a means to reclaim agency, articulate loss, and, ultimately, imagine new beginnings.
Adania Shibli, born in Palestine in 1974, is a celebrated author, essayist and cultural critic. Her acclaimed works include Touch (2010) and Minor Detail (2017), which was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Shibli’s writing is known for its poetic prose and exploration of memory, identity, and the limits of narration. Shibli holds a Ph.D. from the University of East London in Media and Cultural Studies. Her dissertation is titled Visual Terror: A Study of the Visual Compositions of the 9/11 Attacks and Major Attacks in the 'War on Terror' by British and French Television Networks. Adania Shibli continues to be a vital voice in contemporary literature, bridging personal and political realities through her work.
Lotte Folke Kaarsholm interviewed Adania Shibli in connection with the Louisiana Literature festival at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in August 2024.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edit: Signe Boe Pedersen
Produced by Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
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