Racism and Metaphor: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict in Popular Literature

Abstract

This article examines the portrayal of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in western bestselling literature through the analysis of contrasting metaphors or analogies of Israeli society and political action, on the one hand (family and Masada/Second World War), and Arab/Palestinian society and political action, on the other (desert and water/fire/explosion). Considering a number of passages from bestsellers, it is shown how an amplified contrast between two life-worlds is constructed, and how metaphors, in a `play of tropes', construct a boundary threat to the Israeli world, to racist effect. At the same time attention is paid to the situational and ambiguous uses of metaphors, and the ways in which the narrative and political context credentializes racist interpretations.