`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.