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Academic Year 2003/2004


Contemporary Israeli Fiction in Translation: National Identity and Its Other
RELI 383 FA

Israeli literature has always been intensely interested in issues publicly debated in Israeli society: such as arguments over the meaning of Zionism, the role of the Holocaust in Israeli politics and culture, the relation between Jewish and Israeli identity, the significance of ethnic differences in Israeli society, and Israeli-Arab relations. Central to all of these issues is the creation of the "New Jew" proposed by Zionism: strong, secular, and national, as opposed to the presumed "weak" superstitious or cosmopolitan character of the Diaspora Jew.

In this course, we will focus on the ways in which Israeli writers engage and often question the "New Jew". Israeli literature thus provides powerful commentary on current controversies around "post-Zionism," the "new historians," and the Oslo Accords. Israeli novelists are usually widely read social critics, and Israeli novels are public events, sparking debates in the media that go well beyond the evaluation of their literary merits. With all its diversity, Israeli literature focuses primarily on what is suppressed or excluded by the "New Jew": this focus illuminates the ways in which the borders of identity are connected to the construction of national borders.

We will familiarize ourselves with some of the issues in contemporary Israeli politics and culture through excerpts from some Israeli cultural critics like Meron Benveniste, Yoram Hazony, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Amos Oz and Anton Shammas. Mostly, though, we will focus on the way in which Israeli novelists, both those of the "center" and less well-known, more "marginal" writers, have addressed these issues. These writers, in addition to providing a complex diversity of views on contemporary Israel, also provide new ways of thinking about tradition and modernity, identity and difference, in an increasingly hybrid postmodern world.

MAJOR READINGS

Aharon Appelfeld, THE IRON TRACKS
Shulamit Haraven, THE MIRACLE HATER
Amos Oz, BLACK BOX
A.B. Yehoshua, MR. MANI
Also, a variety of short stories by Shimon Ballas, Yehuda Ben-Ner, Jacob Buchan, Yehudit Katzir, Etgar Keret, Savyon Liebrecht, Ronit Matalon, and Mira Magen.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

5-6 shorter response papers, final take home exam.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

This course fulfills a "Religion in Society" requirement for Religion majors.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2004


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