Peace and Conflict Studies - Spring 2014

Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 21, Number 1 21 conclusions from because they differ from one case study to the other, but they still have some elements which actually align with the national narrative and the psychological inter- group repertoire of each specific society. Conclusion Fiction novels, art works, theatre plays, films and other cultural texts sometimes tell stories which differ from the way societies in conflict perceive and understand the conflict in which they live. Fictional cultural texts – by their mere characteristics – tell a more complex and multi-layered story about conflicts than other kinds of discourses. This study is a first step in identifying the contradiction between cultural texts and the discourse they produce on the one hand, and the ethos of conflict and culture of conflict on the other hand. Three different explanations were given to try to understand this contradiction: it could be that the fictionality of these texts enables them to be appreciated and still tell a different story than what society expects; it might be that they are not fully understood by society; and it might be that portions of them do align with parts of the in-group narrative. Maybe all is true. Yet much more research has to be done in order to understand how these texts can be at the same time canonical mainstream texts in a society, and tell a different story from the typical ethos of conflict narrative shared by it. References Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism . New York: Verso Azar, E. E., Jureidini, P., & McLaurin, R. (1978). Protracted social conflict: Theory and practice in the Middle East. Journal of Palestine Studies, 8 , 41-60. Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination . Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Bar-Tal, D., & Teichman, Y. (2005). Stereotypes and prejudice in conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish society . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bar-Tal, D. (2010). Culture of conflict: Evolvement, institutionalization, and consequences. In: R. Schwarzer & P. Frensch (Eds.) Personality, human development, and culture: International perspectives on psychological science (Vol. 2) (pp. 183-198). New York: Psychology Press. Bar-Tal, D. (2013). Intractable conflicts . New-York: Cambridge University Press. Ben-Ezer, E. (1999). Sleepwalkers & other stories: The Arab in Hebrew fiction . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. Ben-Ner, Y. (1989). Ta’atu’on [Delusion]. Jerusalem: Keter. Ben-Porat, G. (2008). Israeli society: Diversity, tensions, and governance. In: G. Ben-Porat, Y. Levy, S. Mizrahi, A. Naor, & E. Tzfadia (Eds.) Israel since 1980 (pp. 9-43). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press . Bhabha, H. K. (1990). Introduction: Narrating the nation. In: H. K. Bhabha (Ed.) Nation and narration (pp. 1-7). London: Routledge.