
An Ideological Death
Suicide in Israeli Literature
Rachel S. Harris(Author)
Northwestern University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. May 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
280 pages
978-0-8101-4379-1 (ISBN)
Description
An Ideological Death: Suicide in Israeli Literature examines literary challenges to Israel's national narratives. The centrality of the army, the mythology of the "new Jew," the vision of the first Israeli city, Tel Aviv, and the very process by which a nation's history is constructed are confronted in fiction by many prominent Israeli writers.
Using the image of suicide, A. B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Yehudit Katzir, Alon Hilu, Yaakov Shabtai, Benjamin Tammuz, and Yehoshua Kenaz each engage in a critical and rhetorical process that examines the nation's formation and reconsiders myths at the heart of the Zionist project. In Israeli literature, suicide represents a society's compulsion to create impossible ideals that leave its populace disappointed and deluded. Yet, as Rachel S. Harris shows, even at their harshest these writers also represent the idealism that helped build Israel as a modern nation-state.
Using the image of suicide, A. B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Yehudit Katzir, Alon Hilu, Yaakov Shabtai, Benjamin Tammuz, and Yehoshua Kenaz each engage in a critical and rhetorical process that examines the nation's formation and reconsiders myths at the heart of the Zionist project. In Israeli literature, suicide represents a society's compulsion to create impossible ideals that leave its populace disappointed and deluded. Yet, as Rachel S. Harris shows, even at their harshest these writers also represent the idealism that helped build Israel as a modern nation-state.
Reviews / Votes
This book constitutes a comprehensive study of the image of suicide in Israeli literature. It demonstrates, through a close reading of major texts, how critical stances are produced by literary images, and reveals the debate on Israeli masculinity as it intertwines with issues such as militarism and nationalism, the body, gender issues, intergenerational relations, and the Israeli landscape." - Israel Studies Review"Rachel Harris's surprising-and, some will find, deeply troubling-book asks why recent Israeli novelists use the narrative device of a central character's suicide to raise fundamental questions about the changing nature of Israeli society. ... Everyone interested in the future of Israel should read her book." - Cary Nelson, coeditor of The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Evanston
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
390 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8101-4379-1 (9780810143791)
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
Person
Rachel S. Harris is an assistant professor of Israeli literature and culture at the University of Illinois.
Content
Danny ( A Note in Memory)
Introduction
Chapter 1: Samson's Suicide: The Sabra-Soldier Hero
Chapter 2: The IDF: Training Base Four with all the Cripples
Chapter 3: Unfortunate Suicides: Rewriting Narrative
Chapter 4: Tel Aviv Necropolis
Chapter 5: Nothing Left to Live For: Women's Suicide
Chapter 6: Suicide in Fiction: Suicide in Life?
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
Chapter 1: Samson's Suicide: The Sabra-Soldier Hero
Chapter 2: The IDF: Training Base Four with all the Cripples
Chapter 3: Unfortunate Suicides: Rewriting Narrative
Chapter 4: Tel Aviv Necropolis
Chapter 5: Nothing Left to Live For: Women's Suicide
Chapter 6: Suicide in Fiction: Suicide in Life?
Bibliography
Index