A society can be judged by its attitude to those who are outside or disadvantaged by reason of class, sex, race, language, background, disability, and so on. This volume seeks to address the models of otherness that exist in Israeli literature.

2021 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Toward the end of the twentieth century, an unprecedented surge of writing altered the Israeli literary scene in profound ways. As fresh creative voices and multiple languages vied for recognition, diversity replaced consensus. Genres once accorded lower status—such as the graphic novel and science fiction—gained readership and positive critical notice. These trends ushered in not only the discovery and recovery of literary works but also a major rethinking of literary history. In Since 1948, scholars consider how recent voices have succeeded older ones and reverberated in concert with them; how linguistic and geographical boundaries have blurred; how genres have shifted; and how canon and competition have shaped Israeli culture. Charting surprising trajectories of a vibrant, challenging, and dynamic literature, the contributors analyze texts composed in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic; by Jews and non-Jews; and by Israelis abroad as well as writers in Israel. What emerges is a portrait of Israeli literature as neither minor nor regional, but rather as transnational, multilingual, and worthy of international attention.

Reflects the rise of literature in modern-day Israel and the problematic reception of literature in America and within the American Jewish community. Israeli literature provides a unique lens for viewing th~ inner dynamics of this small but critically important society. In addition, its leading writers such as S. Y. Agnon, Yehuda Amichai, Amos Oz, and A. B. Yehoshua, among others, are recognized internationally as major world literary figures. Despite this international recognition, the rich literary tradition of Israeli literature has failed to reverberate and find significant readership or a following in America even among the American Jewish community. Alan L. Mintz traces the reception of Israeli literature in America from the 1970s to the present. He analyzes the influences that have shaped modern Israeli literature and reflects on the cultural differences that have impeded American and American Jewish appreciation of Israeli authors. Mintz then turns his attention to specific writers, examining their reception or lack thereof in America and places them within the emerging unfolding critical dialogue between the Israeli and American literary culture.

Students and teachers of Israeli studies will appreciate Narratives of Dissent.

Here is the first critique of modern Hebrew literature to examine the vital concept of place through which we learn about some of the pressing concerns and issues of contemporary Israelis. The geographical shift in Jewish existence from west to east, culminating in the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, corresponded to a shift from an existence outside time and space to an existence within space. From that movement arose a dialectical tension between Israel and Europe, home and abroad. While the first generation of Hebrew writers in Israel looked inward to Israel, subsequent Israeli writers began to move their protagonists abroad, especially to Europe. The renewed encounter provoked admiration and attraction as well as hostility and repulsion. Some protagonists escaped to, others from, Europe; for both, Europe is not just a tourist site but a world of difference from Israel. Europe is also presented as a challenge to the culture of the Israeli-born Sabra. It is easier to ask fundamental questions about the nature of the whole Israeli national enterprise when the characters are moved away, to look back from afar. In many contemporary novels, Israeli protagonists go abroad, are displaced, away from the narrow confines of their existence at home. The issue of movement has become linked with that of identity. This book focuses on six novels in which characters leave Israel but then return, manifesting the tension between home and abroad in the dialectics of outside and inside. This allows the authors to use place on a thematic as well as a structural level. Thus, Europe often assumes a metaphoric, or, alternatively, a metonymic function. Places may also be presented by contrasting their analogous descriptions or their social and cultural aspects. Finally, place may be used to analyse the soul, for external place images can reveal the inner reaches of the psyche.