Israeli Speculative Fiction
Beyond Is/real
Published on 13. March 2026
Book
Hardback
277 pages
978-1-80596-682-1 (ISBN)
Description
This collection of essays investigates both the elements that locate Israeli speculative fiction in relation to world speculative literature, and the features that render it unique. For decades, Israeli literary culture seemed to focus almost entirely on realistic genres; however, a closer examination reveals not only the prevalence of speculative literature in the country, but also its significance in shaping both enduring and emerging ideas about Israeli identities. Recognizing the significance of speculative literature in the reconfiguration of modern Israeli identities will expand and deepen conversations about the wider Israeli culture.
The book contains essays about temporality and spatiality, and explorations of work by seminal authors such as Etgar Keret and Orly Castel-Bloom, as well as Assaf Gavron, Shimon Adaf, Ishay Sarid, and Lavie Tidhar. It also includes unique perspectives on Palestinian Israeli speculative fiction and Israeli comics.
This volume invites readers to enter conversations about Israeli culture that go beyond discourses about what is real, and encounter, instead, discussions about how Israelis use speculative fiction to imagine what might be.
The book contains essays about temporality and spatiality, and explorations of work by seminal authors such as Etgar Keret and Orly Castel-Bloom, as well as Assaf Gavron, Shimon Adaf, Ishay Sarid, and Lavie Tidhar. It also includes unique perspectives on Palestinian Israeli speculative fiction and Israeli comics.
This volume invites readers to enter conversations about Israeli culture that go beyond discourses about what is real, and encounter, instead, discussions about how Israelis use speculative fiction to imagine what might be.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
23 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-80596-682-1 (9781805966821)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Elana Gomel is an Associate Professor at the Department of English and American Studies at Tel-Aviv University and an award-winning fiction writer with numerous short stories, novellas and five novels. Vered Weiss is Assistant Professor at The Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities, and is core faculty member of The Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel at Michigan State University.
Content
Introduction
Vered Weiss and Elana Gomel
Part 1. General - Theory
Limbotopia: The "New Present" and the Literary Imagination
Elana Gomel and Vered Karti Shemtov
What is "Israeli" about Israeli Speculative Fiction?
Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem
Science Fiction and Fantasy in Israeli Literature
Lynn Levanon
Haunting Homelands: Displacement and Resistance in Palestinian Speculative Fiction and Osama Al-Muslim's Orchids of Arabistan
Nardeen Dow
Mauvaises-lettres: The New Historical Imagination in Israeli Speculative Fiction
Oded Nir
Hebrew Speculative Fiction in English Translation
Rachel Cordasco
Part 2. Specific Examples
Bialik and the Gothic: The Hebrew National Poet of Decline and Resurrection
Vered Weiss
Dust Soaked: Water and Mutual Obligation in Assaf Gavron's SF
Keren Omry
"What is Yet to Come Already Slashes the Air": Temporal Space in Shimon Adaf's Rose of Judea Trilogy
Rina Jean Baroukh
"Reaching into the clear blue of the Mediterranean Sea": Lavie Tidhar's Israeli Speculative Fictions
Hadas Elber-Aviram
The Redemption Compulsion: Utopian Messianism and Trauma in the Dystopian Novel The Third
Yossi Mendelovich
A Mischievous Child, a War Hero, and a Friendly Spy: The Ideological Transfiguration of the Sabra in Hebrew Comics from 1935 to 1974
Ben Baruch Blich
Vered Weiss and Elana Gomel
Part 1. General - Theory
Limbotopia: The "New Present" and the Literary Imagination
Elana Gomel and Vered Karti Shemtov
What is "Israeli" about Israeli Speculative Fiction?
Sheldon Teitelbaum and Emanuel Lottem
Science Fiction and Fantasy in Israeli Literature
Lynn Levanon
Haunting Homelands: Displacement and Resistance in Palestinian Speculative Fiction and Osama Al-Muslim's Orchids of Arabistan
Nardeen Dow
Mauvaises-lettres: The New Historical Imagination in Israeli Speculative Fiction
Oded Nir
Hebrew Speculative Fiction in English Translation
Rachel Cordasco
Part 2. Specific Examples
Bialik and the Gothic: The Hebrew National Poet of Decline and Resurrection
Vered Weiss
Dust Soaked: Water and Mutual Obligation in Assaf Gavron's SF
Keren Omry
"What is Yet to Come Already Slashes the Air": Temporal Space in Shimon Adaf's Rose of Judea Trilogy
Rina Jean Baroukh
"Reaching into the clear blue of the Mediterranean Sea": Lavie Tidhar's Israeli Speculative Fictions
Hadas Elber-Aviram
The Redemption Compulsion: Utopian Messianism and Trauma in the Dystopian Novel The Third
Yossi Mendelovich
A Mischievous Child, a War Hero, and a Friendly Spy: The Ideological Transfiguration of the Sabra in Hebrew Comics from 1935 to 1974
Ben Baruch Blich