The politics of the interior: resistance, whitewashing and propaganda in 'The Mandelbaum Gate' by Muriel Spark and 'The Lord' by Soraya Antonius

The critical commentary considers my creative writing in reference to the work of two writers I admire, Muriel Spark and Soraya Antonius, the former highly acclaimed, the latter forgotten. I analyse Spark’s The Mandelbaum Gate (1965) and Antonius’s The Lord (1986), commenting on how these novels position themselves against the political realities of Palestine/Israel during times when Palestine was grossly misrepresented in the West. How literary techniques are used in the production of propaganda materials is considered as well as how the novels portray interior spaces. The term ‘interior’ here referring both to heartlands of indigenous rebellion and also with regards to domestic interiors. Depictions of the land, its flora and fauna are set against the Zionist myths of Palestine that portrayed Palestine as a land empty of a settled population or an agricultural heritage. The influence of the scholarship on these novels on my own writing is also considered.