The limits of Zionism as moral discourse

Author(s)

    • Gover, Yerach

Bibliographic Information

The limits of Zionism as moral discourse

Yerach Gover

University of Minnesota Press, c1994

  • pbk.

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780816624126

Description

Is there an anomaly in being both a Jew and a nationalist? Yerach Gover explores this problem in a book that confronts lived culture with cultural artifacts and sociology with literary texts. His work exposes the limitations of Zionist ideology as a guide to moral and social reform, particularly in the area of Arab-Jewish relations. Along the way, Gover develops a new model of culture as a generative process, more flexible and open to self-criticism than most theories of meaning and value allow. Much of Israeli Hebrew writing about Jewish identity relies on two images, "the Holocaust" and "the Diaspora". The book shows how the use of these themes substantiates the logic of exclusion and inclusion that is so fundamental to Zionist ideology. The particularization of these themes in considerations of identity accounts, in part, for the inability of such texts to transcend the boundary beyond which "Arab" is conceived as morally different. Elucidating this structure of meaning and the role of Zionism within it, the book exposes aspects of the operation of Zionism that have gone largely unnoted in the critical literature. It should engage and challenge readers with an interest in Israel, Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as those interested in literary theory, cultural studies, ideology and nationalism.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Israeli-Hebrew literature and Zionist historiography
  • the problematic of a "good Arab"
  • dual identity: "to be my own enemy"
  • the Palestinian "extremist"
  • the 1948 war: irony and self-righteousness
  • "the organizations". Part 2 Oppositional and insurgent Israeli-Hebrew literature
  • on the morning of the Aqedah.
Volume

pbk. ISBN 9780816624133

Description

Is there an anomaly in being both a Jew and a nationalist? Yerach Gover explores this problem in a book that confronts lived culture with cultural artifacts, sociology with literary texts. His work exposes the limitations of Zionist ideology as a guide to moral and social reform, particularly in the area of Arab-Jewish relations. Along the way, Gover develops a new model of culture as a generative process, more flexible and open to self-criticism than most theories of meaning and value allow. Much of Israeli Hebrew writing about Jewish identity relies on two images, the Holocaust, and the Diaspora. Gover shows how the use of these themes substantiates the logic of exclusion and inclusion that is so fundamental to Zionist ideology. The particularization of these themes in considerations of identity accounts, in part, for the inability of such texts to transcend the boundary beyond which "Arab" is conceived as morally different. Elucidating this structure of meaning and the role of Zionism within it, Gover exposes aspects of the operation of Zionism that have gone largely unnoted in the critical literature. His book will engage and challenge readers with an interest in Israel, Zionism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as those interested in literary theory, cultural studies, ideology, and nationalism.

Table of Contents

  • Part 1 Israeli Hebrew literature and Zionist historiography
  • the problematic of a "good Arab"
  • dual identity - "To be my own enemy"
  • the Palestinian "extremist"
  • the 1948 war - irony and self-righteousness
  • "the organisations". Part 2 Oppositional and insurgent Israeli Hebrew literature
  • on the morning of the Aqedah.

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