Peace and Conflict Studies - Spring 2014

Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 21, Number 1 6 voices (see for example: Bakhtin, 1981) and provide different perspectives than one can see in the non-fictional discourse. Therefore, there is a gap, a kind of contradiction, between the fictional texts’ complex characteristics and the claim that they actually not only take part – but also have a significant role – in shaping societies’ experiences and actions in conflicts. Although there seems to be an understanding that cultural texts do not have a “bottom line”, that they are not manifests or political pamphlets, the discipline of conflict research commonly looks at them as such. For example, relying on scholarly research – from both social science studies and humanistic studies – Bar-Tal concludes that society’s narratives emerge through these cultural texts that “provide a ‘good story’ that is well understood and meaningful. The plot of the story is simple and clear, elaborated in black-and-white form with unambiguous villains, victims, and heroes” (Bar-Tal, 2013, p. 257) and that “through these cultural products, societal beliefs and emotions of the socio-psychological infrastructure are disseminated and can reach every sector of the public” (Bar-Tal, 2013, p. 260). The picture is more complex because of the special traits of fictional texts which are not the same as other kinds of discourses. In what follows, by studying how the Israeli-Arab conflict is manifested in Israeli cultural texts of the 1980s, the complex relation between the conflict and how it is seen in fictional texts will be viewed. The decision to focus on Israeli cultural texts of the late 1970s and the 1980s was done for three main reasons: 1. The end of the 1970s and through the 1980s was a time of change both in how Israeli society perceived the long-lasting Israeli-Arab conflict, and in the way Israeli cultural texts dealing with the conflict represented it (Benziman, 2013; Oren, 2009). Therefore it provides an opportunity to view the changes that occurred in the two different discourses – the social-political and the cultural-fictional – which can be compared. 2. Israeli culture – and more specifically Israeli literature and films – has always had an important and influential part in shaping Israel’s collective ethos and national identity (Hever, 2002; Miron, 1993; Schwartz, 2005; Shohat, 2010). Therefore, studying the dynamic relation between reality and fictionality in this case is of special interest. 3. One of the basic traits of a protracted conflict is that it influences a large portion of society’s daily lives and wide aspects of its behaviors (Azar, Jureidini, & McLaurin, 1978). The Israeli-Arab conflict is one of such conflicts, as the core disputes between the sides are real and have to do with lands, infrastructures, money and more; yet this conflict has lasted for so long and became so complicated and connected to other conflicts, that it influences almost all parts of the societies’ conducts to a point where