Under this Blazing Light

Abstract

This collection – published here in English for the first time – brings together a number of political, personal and literary pieces by Israel's most celebrated novelist and littérateur. Topics covered include: an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a dispute between 'right and right'; reflections on the character of Zionism, on the concept of 'homeland', and on the nature of the kibbutz; the meaning of socialism in the Israeli context; and portraits of several Jewish writers and thinkers whose ideas and themes in one way or another have proved influential or determinative for Amos Oz himself. These essays, which put a unique perspective on the author's own experiences and development, reveal a complex and humane figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. They will win for Oz new readers, while delighting those who will recognise here the qualities evident in his other writings.

Telling stories: language, narrative, and social life

“…He writes that, while such thinking is indicative of the experience of the diaspora Jew, Zionism turns this model on its head; for the Zionist, the proper response to the danger of various places is to show fearlessness and even aggression. Stratton, along with Berkowitz (1993) and Oz (1962), propose that the "new Jew" that Zionism theorizes is not actually something new; instead, it is an inversion-a mirror image-of the anti-Semitic portrait of the weak, submissive diaspora Jew.…”