This book presents a panoramic and all-inclusive portrait of the literature written in Hebrew during the state of Israel’s 50 years. This portrait contains books translated from other Israeli languages such as Yiddish and Arabic, as well as a number of foreign languages. All these texts, as well as texts written about literature, critical texts, children’s books, and popular writing, are a lively, active, productive, and influential component of “Israeli Literature.”
The story of Israeli literature is described in this book as a web of the construction of Israeli identities – an act that always involves signifying rejected identities identified as “non-Israeli.” In the six trajectories that the book suggests, along which Israeli literature developed over 50 years, the power relations between the varied literary phenomena are highlighted as a structure that includes those who are not party to the central ideological backbones – the Jewish ones and Zionism.
Thus, given that Israeli literature was, and still is, active in determining the production of “Israeliness,” Literature Written from Here argues that Israeli authors and Israeli literature, and the Israeli reader, combine to create a thriving and never-ending dialogue in the form of a mirror reflecting its double bind.
Using book-covers and journals, theater and film stills, and portraits of prose writers and poets, this book produces a verbal and visual tapestry of the dynamic character of Israeli literature.