السخرية كاستراتيجية نفسية ضد الاكتئاب في الرواية الفلسطينية: دراسة مقارنة بين حبيبي وكنفاني

Satire as a Psychological Strategy Against Depression in the Palestinian Novel: A Comparative Study of Habibi and Kanafani

Abstract

This study examines satire as a psychological defense mechanism against depression in Palestinian literature, focusing on the works of Emile Habibi and Ghassan Kanafani. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, cognitive psychology, and trauma studies, the research analyzes how these two major Palestinian novelists employed distinct forms of satire to cope with collective trauma and occupation. Habibi's black comedy, exemplified in “The Pessoptimist”, “Lukka ibn Lukka”, and “Saraya the Ogre's Daughter”, serves as a protective shield enabling psychological survival under direct occupation. In contrast, Kanafani's bitter irony in “Men in the Sun”, “Returning to Haifa”, and “All That's Left to You” functions as a surgical tool for critical self-examination and revolutionary consciousness. While Habibi's satire focuses on internal control and long-term survival, Kanafani's aims at external transformation through awakening political agency. Both writers demonstrate that satire is not merely an aesthetic device but an essential existential strategy for preserving mental health and human dignity under sustained oppression. This comparative analysis reveals how satire operates as collective psychological resilience, transforming pain into creative resistance and maintaining the Palestinian capacity to laugh in the face of tragedy without losing awareness of its depth.