Intertextuality as a Reflection of Thematic Concerns in Ghada Samman’s Beirut Nightmares

Abstract

Abstract: This article sheds light on role of intertextuality in reflecting some of the major thematic concerns in Ghada Samman’s Beirut Nightmares. Through a matrix of different texts, she attempts to convey the honorific experience of her narrator during the Lebanese Civil War. Samman exposes the impact of civil war on the daily life and the psychology of her major character. Thus, intertextuality serves as an important thematic tool that contributes in providing a nuanced understanding of the narrator’s tragic experience. Samman weaves myths and literary texts in her narrative in order to comment on the devastating situation resulted from this internal conflict. She highlights the dialogical relationship between her work and previous ones to locate the narrator’s experience within a broader historical and literary context. In this study, Beirut Nightmares is understood through its dependency on prior works to explore themes of confinement, fear, issues of artistic creativity and destruction. Samman’s use of a web of texts enables her to evoke similar feelings within a different socio-cultural context. Accordingly, intertextuality contributes in creating different levels of understanding regarding the narrator’s suffering. Keywords: Intertextuality, Beirut Nightmares, Ghada Samman, Civil War.