The relationship between Israel and Palestine has been the subject of intense academic and political debate for many years. Sandy Tolan’s (2009) The Lemon Tree explores the historical and cultural context of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict through the story of two families and the themes of identity, belonging and land. By examining the use of language in the novel, discourse analysis can reveal how characters’ identities are constructed, how historical events are interpreted and how cultural values are transmitted. The novel Lemon Tree is an important example for understanding the complex relationship of discourse with culture, identity and history. This study aims to examine Sandy Tolan’s novel The Lemon Tree through a Foucauldian discourse analysis approach to analyze how certain themes in the novel (such as bell, house, migration, exile) are associated with the concepts of subjectivity, power and discursive structure and what discursive strategies they reveal. Throughout the study, the main discourses are shaped around themes such as “land and belonging”, “memory and history”, “identity and othering”, “power and injustice”.
Lemon Tree, novel, discourse analysis, identity, Palestine.