Inextricably Bonded: Israeli Arab and Jewish Writers Re-visioning Culture Rachel Feldhay Brenner

"Rachel Feldhay Brenner presents a brilliant comparison of texts, but more important, she suggests a model of interpretation and interrelation that can be applied to other literatures and other conflicts." Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania Despite the tragic reality of the continuing Israeli-Arab conflict and deep-rooted beliefs that the chasm between Israeli Arabs is unbridgeable, this book affirms the bonds between the two communities. Rachel Feldhay Brenner demonstrates that the literatures of both ethnic groups defy the ideologies that have obstructed dialogue between the two peoples. Brenner argues that literary critics have ignored the variety and the dissent in the novels of both Arab and Jewish writers in Israel, giving them interpretations that embrace the politics of exclusion and conform with Zionist ideology. Brenner offers insightful new readings that compare fiction by Jewish writers including Amos OZ, A. B. Yehoshua, David Grossman, with fiction written in Hebrew by such Arab-Israeli writers as Atallah Mansour, Emile Habibi, and Anton Shammas. This parallel analysis highlights the moral and psychological dilemmas faced by both for release from the historical trauma lies - on both sides - in reaching an understanding with and of the adversary. Drawing upon the theories of Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, Emanuel Levinas, and others, Inextricably Bonded is an innovative and illuminating examination of literary dissent from dominant ideology. Rachel Feldhay Brenner is professor of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Writing as Resistance, Assimilation and Assertion, and A.M. Klein, the Father of Canadian Jewish Literature.