Roots in the Air : Construction of Identity in Anglophone Israeli Literature

Located on the seam of Diaspora and Israeli Literature, Anglophone Israeli Literature comprises a loose community of 100-500 authors and has co-existed with the Hebrew writing tradition in Israel since the 1970s. Consisting mainly of immigrants from Anglophone countries, Anglophone Israeli Literature is characterized by a search for personal and poetic identity in a highly transcultural environment, challenging settled identities and opting instead for flexibility, flux and inclusion. The present volume considers Anglophone Israeli Literature as a phenomenon in its critical, social and historical aspects on the one hand and explores the specific mechanisms of constructing and representing poetic identity on the other hand. Focusing on the works by and interviews with some of the core representatives of Anglophone Israeli Literature – Shirley Kaufman, Rachel Tzvia Back, Karen Alkalay-Gut, Lami, Richard Sherwin, Jerome Mandel, Riva Rubin and Rochelle Mass – the book analyzes three pivotal elements of identity: language, geography and place, and political and emotional self-positioning towards the Other. Title Page; Copyright; Table of Contents; Body; 1. Introduction; 2. Cultures in Flux and the Flexible Selves; 2.1. Identity, Hybridity, Transculturality; 2.2. Challenging Autonomous Cultures and the Jewish Perspective; 3. English and English Speakers in Israel; 3.1. The Status of English in Israel; 3.2. Immigration from English Speaking Countries; 3.3. Geographical Distribution; 3.4. Motivation of Immigrants; 3.5. From Demography to Writing; 4. Overview: Anglophone Israeli Literature; 4.1. In Lieu of a Definition; 4.2. The Beginnings; 4.3. Writers' Organizations; 4.4. Creative Writing Courses. 4.5. Publishing4.6. Translation and Cultural Integration?; 4.7. Genre; 4.8. The Poetic Form; 4.9. Authors: Native and Non-Native Speakers of English; 5. Voices in Context; 5.1. Jewish American Literature; 5.2. Hebrew Literature; 5.2.1. The Revival of Hebrew; 5.2.2. Non-Native Speakers Now and Then: Proficiency and Ideology; 5.2.3. Language and Uprootedness in the Israeli Hebrew Canon: Lea Goldberg and Yehuda Amichai; 6. Language and the Self; 6.1. Me, Myself, Ani and Ikh; 6.2. Shirley Kaufman and Riva Rubin: The Monolingualism of the Self; 6.3. Translingual Heteroglossia. 6.3.1. The Critics' Voice6.3.2. Rachel Tzvia Back: Echoes in the Third Space; 6.3.3. Lami: A Leak in the Word Pouch; 6.3.4. Richard Sherwin: The Continuum Widens; 6.3.5. Karen Alkalay-Gut: An Alter Ego; 6.4. Conclusion; 7. Landscapes of Belonging; 7.1. Territorializing the Translocal; 7.2. Demystifying the Land; 7.3. Place, Acculturation and the Double Diaspora; 7.4. Sprouting Roots: A Suspended Ficus and a Walking Tree; 7.5. Projections of Alienation and Attachment in the Landscape; 7.5.1. Conflict in the Parched Land; 7.5.2. Projecting Belonging. 7.6. The Old Country and the New Country: Questioning the Concept of Home7.7. Conclusion; 8. Deconstructing the Other; 8.1. A Question of Perspective; 8.2. Locating the Other; 8.3. Tracing the Front Line: Richard Sherwin and Rachel Tzvia Back; 8.4. Short Lines from a Sealed Room; 8.5. The Context of Contact: Looking for Solutions; 8.5.1. The Power of Coincidence; 8.5.2. The Mother and the Other; 8.5.3. From Personal to Political; 8.6. Conclusion; 9. Conclusion; 10. A Timeline of Anglophone Israeli Literature; 11. Acknowledgements; 12. Works Cited; 12.1. Academic and Critical Works. 12.2. Articles and Reports without Specified Author12.3. Literary Works; 12.4. Reviews and Interviews. Anglophone Israeli Literature comprises a loose community of more than 500 authors and it has co-existed with the Hebrew writing tradition in Israel since the 1970s. Consisting mainly of immigrants from Anglophone countries, Anglophone Israeli Literature is characterized by a search for personal and poetic identity in a highly transcultural environment, challenging settled identities and opting instead for flexibility, flux and inclusion. The present volume considers Anglophone Israeli Literature a a phenomenon in its critical, social and historical aspects on the one hand and explores the specific mechanisms of constructing and representing poetic identity on the other hand. The book analyzes three pivotal elements of identity: language, geography and place, and political and emotional self-positioning towards the Other