Last night, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Yigal Schwartz illuminated the link between the complexities of modern Israeli literature and the discrepancies between the culture and politics of the state itself.
The lecture was part of the 24th annual Joseph Alexander Colloquium, which aims to address and discuss relevant Jewish issues at work in the world today. The event was co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies program and the Middle East Center.
In his talk, Schwartz emphasized the formation of the state of Israel in May 1948 as the foundation of the themes of modern Israeli literature. The transition, remarked Schwartz, from the pre-Israel Yishuv society to the global society of the state of Israel resulted in a sense of “identity shock” and “yearning for a lost Eden” that manifested itself in the literature of the times.
Schwartz illustrated the political and cultural discrepancy that continues to inspire themes of Israeli literature today.
“Politically, Israel is a whole era behind other Western states,” Schwartz said. “Culturally, though, it is pretty much in line.”
As results of this dissonance, Schwartz cited the themes of disconnect and “an unbridgeable gap between a desire for global freedom and the reality of the state of Israel” that emerged in modern-day Israeli literature.
Schwartz also described the current conflict between two schools of Zionist thought in Israel, referred to as the “Zionist Right” and the “Zionist Left,” which both play a major part in fueling Israeli literature today.
The “Zionist Right” supports the idea of constant revolution to keep the Zionist spirit alive in the Jewish population worldwide. The “Zionist Left,” however, inverts traditional Jewish desire to “unite the body and heart in Israel” and states that after the Holocaust, even if the body resides in Israel, the heart remains displaced.
Conflicts such as these, Schwartz emphasized, along with Israel’s still unstable position as a state, continue to perpetrate the complexities of the modern day writings.
Students who attended the lecture saw the broad range of Schwartz’s discussion as representative of the state of Israeli culture itself.
“His talk was a mix of a lot of different aspects, like East and West, past and present,” remarked College sophomore Michael Rubin. “It was a good demonstration of the complexity of Israeli literature and culture.”
College sophomore Monica Gojman agreed, adding that Schwartz “did a great job in voicing the main themes and struggles of Israeli culture, told through a variety of modern Hebrew literature.”
