This thesis discusses the intersection of religion, nationality, and territory in Zionist and Palestinian Nationalist narrative, and how these intersections help keep up with or dismantling oppression. Using a socio-epistemic rhetorical lens, this thesis analyzes films in dialogue with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, specifically looking at how these films contribute to either Zionist or Palestinian nationalist narratives. 1 CHAPTER ONE 90), thereby keeping each orientation engaged in a power

more »

... struggle against the other. Twodimensional rhetoric also uses argumentative and persuasive strategies to develop and articulate one orientation by critiquing other orientations, often seen in contact zones. Mary Louise Pratt in The Art of Contact Zones, defines contact zones as, "'social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today'" (Pratt, page 35). Rhetoric and cultural studies intersect here because both involve "the study of signifying practices, of language use in writing and speaking, and language interpretation in reading and listening, with the focus on the relation of these practices in the disposition of power-economic, social, and political-as a particular historical moment" (Bernard-Donals, 390). I will use both methodologies in order to analyze the films, looking closely at the language interpretation and language used in regards to the disposition of power in Israel and Palestine.