With Both Feet on the Clouds: Fantasy in Israeli Literature

Why do Israelis dislike fantasy? Put so bluntly, the question appears frivolous. But in fact, it goes to the deepest sources of Israeli historical identity and literary tradition. Uniquely among developed nations, Israel’s origin is in a utopian novel, Theodor Herzl’s Altneuland (1902), which predic...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Other Authors: Gomel, Elana (Editor), Graff, Rani (Editor), Gurevitch, Danielle (Editor)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: Boston, MA Academic Studies Press [2013]
Series:Israel: Society, Culture, and History
Subjects:
Online Access:DE-1043
DE-1046
DE-858
DE-859
DE-860
DE-473
DE-739
Volltext
Summary:Why do Israelis dislike fantasy? Put so bluntly, the question appears frivolous. But in fact, it goes to the deepest sources of Israeli historical identity and literary tradition. Uniquely among developed nations, Israel’s origin is in a utopian novel, Theodor Herzl’s Altneuland (1902), which predicted the future Jewish state. Jewish writing in the Diaspora has always tended toward the fantastic, the mystical, and the magical. And yet, from its very inception, Israeli literature has been stubbornly realistic. The present volume challenges this stance. Originally published in Hebrew in 2009, it is the first serious, wide-ranging, and theoretically sophisticated exploration of fantasy in Israeli literature and culture. Its contributors jointly attempt to contest the question posed at the beginning: why do Israelis, living in a country whose very existence is predicated on the fulfillment of a utopian dream, distrust fantasy?
Item Description:Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Dez 2019)
Physical Description:1 online resource (312 pages)
ISBN:9781618110688
DOI:10.1515/9781618110688

There is no print copy available.

Interlibrary loan Place Request Caution: Not in THWS collection! Get full text