Surviving the Story

The Narrative Trap In Israel And Palestine

Rosemary Hollis

“Talking to the enemy and connecting between parallel universes is not only worthwhile but necessary.”
Ian Black, author of Enemies and Neighbours: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017

All of us derive our identities from the stories we tell ourselves (and our children) about who we are and who we are not; our triumphs and our tragedies, the heroes we honour and the villains we denounce. We find meaning and inspiration in these narratives, but they can also trap us into dualistic thinking about ‘self’ and ‘other’. The very realisation of an option – to escape the narrative trap – is to approach freedom from manipulation.

In Surviving the Story, political scientist Rosemary Hollis examines the role of group and national narratives in driving conflict. For the non-specialist reader baffled today by an almost daily diet of competing narratives, this work offers hope. Rather than fall prey to dualistic thinking about political and national identity, the reader is invited to forego polarised, tribal positions and discern alternative ways of being.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-9160843-1-5
196 pages
Ebook
ISBN: 978-1-9160843-3-9
Available to Academic group buyers