“Laughter Needs No Justification Even after June 5”: Ghassān Kanafānī’s Satirical Book Reviews after the Six-Day War

Unbeknownst to many, Ghassān Kanafānī authored a significant corpus of articles of literary and social criticism under the pen name Fāris Fāris between 1967 and 1972. Even less known are the several book reviews he had already published under his real name since 1959, showing his keenness to participate in the debates about Arabic literary criticism, committed literature, and writers’ worldviews. Although in continuity with the literary sensibility, methods, and interests of these earlier pieces, the articles of his “Fāris Fāris” phase participate in the movement of self-critique that Arab intellectuals started after the defeat of June 1967 and deliberately adopt a satirical tone. The Naksah contributed to ripening Kanafānī’s reflections on satire as an oppositional practice to refuse oppression and criticize what he described as the stagnation of Arab culture, while fostering an articulate and mature art that was rooted in its tradition and aware of its context.