Publisher 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.

Table of Contents

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

Details