Narrating Palestinian Lives Through Phototexts. The Case of Edward W. Said

Abstract

Starting with the intersection between literature and visual culture, this chapter addresses the representation of the Palestinian people’s cultural identity through a specific genre in-between literature and photography: the phototext. In what follows After the Last Sky. Palestinian Lives, by Edward W. Said and Jean Mohr (1986), will be analyzed as a case study that still has an impact on the critical discourse around cultural identity. Through the phototextual representation, Said and Mohr demonstrate the way in which dispossessions, resettlements and exile impact on the everyday life and the cultural identity of people. More importantly, this endeavor will also focus on the necessity for Palestinians of telling their own story, and of making that story heard. All these issues involve, though in different and specific ways, not only Palestinian lives, but those of all people suffering from the same processes.