`The Editorial Family of Al-Kateb Bows in Respect': The Construction of Martyrdom Text Genre in One Palestinian Political and Literary Magazine

Abstract

Fifty-nine `Martyrs' Lists' of 1650 Palestinians killed during the Palestinian Uprising against the Israeli occupation are analyzed to shed light on what Freedman and Medway (1994: 2) call `the rhetorical action taken within a recurring social situation'. The analysis of the structure, style, syntax, rhetoric and use of metaphor in the lists (taken from the Palestinian magazine, al-Kateb) illustrates that, while they share some important structural and rhetorical features with news text, they differ from news reports in ways that enhance the lists' communicative function. The study also shows how al-Kateb uses the narrative text genre of the lists to comment on the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and to prescribe the socially sanctioned behavior of sacrifice.

Diplomatic condolences: ideological positioning in the death of Yasser Arafat

“…The Appraisal work is extended in Coffin, who has studied two aspects of historical narratives: the linguistic means for making moral judgments on historical matters (2003), and types of narrative 'voice' in history texts (2004). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict itself has been studied before through the lens of death announcements: Najjar (1995) examined death notices in the West Bank press, and later 'martyr's lists' in East Jerusalem Arabic magazines (Najjar, 1996), and showed how these notices can serve a dual purpose in addition to that of mourning -they can operate as political statements or even as acts of incitement. From the Israeli side, Roniger (1994) analyzed death announcements in the Hebrew press, although his goal was to show how they reflected general shifts in Israeli society, rather than political agendas.…”