From Schlemiel to Sabra

Zionist Masculinity and Palestinian Hebrew Literature

Philip Hollander author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Indiana University Press

Published:17th May '19

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From Schlemiel to Sabra cover

In From Schlemiel to Sabra Philip Hollander examines how masculine ideals and images of the New Hebrew man shaped the Israeli state. In this innovative book, Hollander uncovers the complex relationship that Jews had with masculinity, interrogating narratives depicting masculinity in the new state as a transition from weak, feminized schlemiels to robust, muscular, and rugged Israelis. Turning to key literary texts by S. Y. Agnon, Y. H. Brenner, L. A. Arieli, and Aharon Reuveni, Hollander reveals how gender and sexuality were intertwined to promote a specific Zionist political agenda. A Zionist masculinity grounded in military prowess could not only protect the new state but also ensure its procreative needs and future. Self-awareness, physical power, fierce loyalty to the state and devotion to the land, humility, and nurture of the young were essential qualities that needed to be cultivated in migrants to the state. By turning to the early literature of Zionist Palestine, Hollander shows how Jews strove to construct a better Jewish future.

Hollander convincingly demonstrates the role of gender and sexuality in forming the Israeli state and in doing so demonstrates the place of literature as a force in politics as much as in the formation of culture.

* ChoicdF *

Philip Hollander sheds light on developments in Hebrew literature at the turn of the twentieth century that complicate and enrich our understanding of this period. Eschewing any simple equation of literary representation with masculine role modeling, Hollander identifies a cluster of male writers as advocates for "Self-Evaluative" masculinity.

-- Anne Golomb Hoffman - Fordham University * AJS Revi

ISBN: 9780253042057

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

270 pages