Beyond power and politics: precarity and the human cost of conflict in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American and Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun

Abstract

Individuals and communities still struggle with the enduring impact of war, colonization, and occupation.
This paper reconceptualizes the human cost of these adversities through a comparative reading of Arabic
and Western literary representations. It explores Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955) and Ghassan
Kanafani’s Men in the Sun (1962), with the former illustrating the effects of the Vietnam War and the latter
depicting the aftermath of the Nakba. Despite portraying distinct geopolitical struggles, both texts share a
deep concern with the psychological, cultural, and social toll of colonization. Drawing on Frantz Fanon’s
and Edward Said’s postcolonial theories, this study argues that colonization and occupation are not only
power struggles but are also deeply emotional and dehumanizing experiences that fracture identity.
Extending the analysis into the present, the paper engages Judith Butler’s theory of precarity, arguing that
the persistent conditions of imperial intervention and occupation have recently evolved into a precarious
system that renders colonized and displaced populations politically and existentially neglected. Eventually,
this study contributes to ongoing debates on postcolonialism and critical human rights, highlighting how
literary narratives capture the persistent structures of global precarity.