Scripts and Projects as Modes of Understanding Political Actions: The Representation of Palestinians in Bestselling Literature

AbstractThis article analyzes the representation of Palestinian actions in Western bestsell-ing thrillers. Most of these actions can be understood through the application of scripts—cognitive structures of stereotypical action sequences. It is argued that the scriptal representations activate causal schemas of Palestinians and Arabs at both a psychological and a social level. The concept of script is set against that of project, characterized by a narrative understanding. It is shown how the need to make a story interesting and thus not completely stereotypical is met by, among others, the amplification of aspects of threatening scripts, and by a tension producing ambivalence toward Palestinian nationalism. In almost all cases a scriptal understanding remains privileged. (Qualitative Psychology, Cultural Studies)