Peace and Conflict Studies - Spring 2014

Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 21, Number 1 19 fantasy world that is not connected to reality. All these are, of course, much closer to what Israeli novels and films of the 1980s showed than to the ethos of conflict of the 1980s in which they were produced. Potential Explanations Various explanations can be given to this gap between the ethos of conflict and the psychological inter-group repertoire, and the way cultural fictional texts present the conflict. I would like to suggest three explanations, not necessarily competing ones – and sometimes even overlapping – although many more can be thought of: 1. Fictional texts can present a different perspective of conflicts than the one shared by society because they are not obligated to a mimetic representation of the conflict. Their fictionality allows them to tell different stories and they show a more complicated picture of the conflict. Their role, as being part of society but also outside of it because of their fictionality, gives them more freedom in their ability to deal with the conflict. It allows them to produce works that are not consistent with what their audiences are used to hearing, reading or seeing – and to still be appreciated and loved. And so, they are capable of being much more critical of the national narrative and the ethos of conflict, and might even foresee future events just because they are based on the imagination of their producers. In the case study discussed above, although the real conflict transformed at the time and so did the public opinion (Oren, 2010), the cultural texts – while going through dramatic changes – did not go with the flow. Although changing the representation of the Arab characters (Ben-Ezer, 1999; Orian, 1996; Shohat, 1991), although challenging the dichotomy between Jews and Arabs (Gertz, 1993), although presenting a more multi-layered perspective of the conflict (Benziman, 2011) – their essence is actually rooted in viewing the conflict as a dead-end one, which was the basic understanding of the conflict in Israeli society before the 1980s and came back to be the main belief of Israeli society after the year 2000. 2. Fictional texts do not present claims or positions. They tell stories which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. One reader or scholar can understand them in one way and the other in another. They also, as mentioned, contain different layers to them. And so the text can at the same time contain elements of the ethos of conflict and criticize the national narrative, they can preserve the ethos while presenting crucial variations from it. Knowing that conflicts influence the way individuals and societies understand and perceive information (see for example Markus & Zajonc,