With both feet on the clouds : fantasy in Israeli literature / edited by Danielle Gurevitch, Elana Gomel, Rani Graff.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gurevitch, Danielle.

Gomel, Elana.

Graff, Rani.

Series:

Israel (Boston, Mass.)

Israel : society, culture, and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fantasy fiction, Israeli--History and criticism.

Fantasy fiction, Israeli.

Hebrew literature--History and criticism.

Hebrew literature.

Fantasy in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (250 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why do Israelis dislike fantasy? Put so bluntly, the question appears frivolous. But in fact, it goes to the deepest sources of Israeli historical identity and literary tradition. Uniquely among developed nations, Israel's origin is in a utopian novel, Theodor Herzl's Altneuland (1902), which predicted the future Jewish state. Jewish writing in the Diaspora has always tended toward the fantastic, the mystical, and the magical. And yet, from its very inception, Israeli literature has been stubbornly realistic. The present volume challenges this stance. Originally published in Hebrew in 2009, it is the first serious, wide-ranging, and theoretically sophisticated exploration of fantasy in Israeli literature and culture. Its contributors jointly attempt to contest the question posed at the beginning: why do Israelis, living in a country whose very existence is predicated on the fulfillment of a utopian dream, distrust fantasy?

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

I. DEFINITIONS AND DEBATE

What is Fantasy? / Gurevitch, Danielle

What Is Reality? / Gomel, Elana

What is Unimaginable? / Hareven, Gail

II. REALISTIC FANTASY AND FANTASTIC REALISM IN CONTEMPORARY ISRAELI LITERATURE

May He Come in Haste: Urban Fantasy in Soothsayer by Asaf Ashery / Gurevitch, Danielle

Etgar Keret's Fantastic Reality / Marron, Orley K.

Postmodern Jewish Superstition in David Grossman's To the End of the Land / Newman, Ruby

III. VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL: THEATER, CINEMA AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Dybbuk, Husband, Home: Shmuel Hasfari and the Fantastic Tradition in Israeli Theater / Bar-Yosef, Eitan

Magical Realism in Israeli Cinema / Duvdevani, Shmulik

The Grand High Witch of Dreams / Manheim, Noa

IV. DIASPORA DREAMS: CULTURAL ROOTS OF JEWISH/ISRAELI FANTASY

The Man from the Yellow Star / Gomel, Elana

Why Doesn't It Rain Fish Here? / Melcer, Ioram

Kosher Vampires: Jews, Vampires, and Prejudice / Blau, Sahara

V. "Messiah Does Not Call Back": Fantasy in Jewish Sources and Ancient Jewish Literature

Travel Literature: The Itinerary of an Armchair Traveler's Journey to Eretz Israel in a Seventeenth-Century Yiddish Story / Aderet, Anat

Ghost Stories in Medieval Hebrew Folktales: The Case of Sefer Hasidim and Sippurei Ha-Ari / Peretz, Ido

A Terrible Fable and Enchanting Fiction: The Story of Joseph De-La Reina and Its Reflections in Two Novels of Yehoshua Bar Yosef / Rubinstein, Bilhah

The Borders of Messianic Imagination in Jewish Thinking / Schwartz, Dov

Appendices

Israeli Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction Published From 1948 to 2011

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-61811-068-3

OCLC:

847610341