Literature

The representation of the village does not function as a reflection of reality but as a

discursive response to the historical and political situation. Palestinians employ the

image of the village to express particular ideas about the past and their identity, ideas

which inform and contour the representation of the village. The images of the village

function to mediate reality, often opening up a space of fantasy and imaginings that

influence the way the past, the present and the future are imagined. The village

and peasantry have provided Palestinians with a repository of signs as part of their

vocabulary for the articulation of identity, and from this repository Palestinians have

created an identity that they have contoured to communicate their relationship with

the land.