Fabricated Intimacy: Civil War History in Lebanese Epistolary Narratives

Abstract

History often transcends the confines of official records, finding expression in private forms such as letters, which convey details that might be omitted from national narratives. This thesis highlights the significance of these letters in contributing to Lebanese history, particularly during the Civil War from 1975 to 1990. My research examines letters found in three Lebanese novels, each written in a different language, with two of them being epistolary by genre: Lettre Posthume by Dominique Eddé (1989), Bareed Beirut by Hanan al-Shaykh (1992), translated as Beirut Blues by Catherine Cobham (1995), and Somewhere, Home by Nada Awar Jarrar (2004). The focus of my work is not so much on history itself, but rather on the intimacy conveyed through the epistolary form—intimacy that often remains outside the scope of academic narratives. Specifically, I aim to explore three key questions: How does the form of the letter fabricate intimacy? How do the narrative and its techniques employed in the epistolary form shape intimacy? And how does verisimilitude within these letters contribute to the fabrication of intimacy? Through a comparative analysis, this research sheds light on the complex relationship between history and fiction, and the process of weaving an intimate narrative together, further emphasizing how the epistolary form can bridge what is public and what is private. The findings suggest that Lebanese epistolary novels use the structural and stylistic elements of letter-writing to fabricate intimate narratives, highlighting the unique ability of this form to bridge public and private spheres.