An Ideological Death: Suicide in Israeli Literature

281 Pages·2014·0.911 MB·English

by  Rachel S. Harris

An Ideological Death
Cultural ExprEssions of World War ii
Interwar Preludes, resPonses, MeMory
phyllis lassnEr, serIes edItor
An Ideological Death
suicide in israeli literature
Rachel S. Harris
Northwestern University Press  Evanston, Illinois
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2014 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2014. All rights
reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, Rachel S. (Rachel Sylvia), 1977– author.
An ideological death : suicide in Israeli literature / Rachel S. Harris.
pages cm. — (Cultural expressions of World War II)
ISBN 978-0-8101-2978-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8101-6765-0 (ebook)
1. Israeli literature—History and criticism. 2. Hebrew literature, Modern—History
and criticism. 3. Suicide in literature. 4. Zionism in literature. I. Title. II. Series:
Cultural expressions of World War II.
PJ5021.H37 2014
892.4'093548—dc23
2014017284
♾ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48- 1992.
For my parents, Valerie and Jeffrey Harris
“You are the bows from which your children, as living arrows,
are sent forth.”
— Gibran Kahlil Gibran (1883– 1931)

contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Prologue
“Danny (A Note in Memory),” Amos Kenan 3
Introduction 5
Chapter 1
Samson’s Suicide: The Sabra- Soldier Hero 39
Chapter 2
The IDF: Training Base Four with All the Cripples 65
Chapter 3
Unfortunate Suicides: Rewriting Narrative 95
Chapter 4
Tel Aviv Necropolis 143
Chapter 5
Nothing Left to Live For: Women’s Suicide 173
Chapter 6
Suicide in Fiction: Suicide in Life? 209
Notes 227
Bibliography 247
Index 261

acknowledgments
This book has taken a long time to come into being from its earliest ori-
gins as my doctoral dissertation. In the process it has benefited from the
wisdom of a great number of people to whom I am extremely grateful.
My doctoral supervisor at the University of Oxford, Glenda Abramson,
helped shepherd the first version as a thesis— forcing me to admit that
all the renditions of death in Hebrew literature might be too large a topic
to tackle, but that suicide somehow seemed manageable. Daphna Clif-
ford was a wise advisor and important friend through my graduate work.
I thank her for introducing me to Hebrew literature and for teaching me
to think.
My colleagues at the University at Albany (SUNY) helped me be-
gin the process of transformation from student to scholar. I thank Hilde
Hoogenboom, Martha Rozett, Jacinto Fombona, Alethia Jones, Jennifer
Burrell, and Jeffrey Berman for their generosity in reading early drafts
and the guidance which followed.
Matti Bunzl and Dara Goldman read late drafts of parts of the man-
uscript and helped me find my focus. They have been generous col-
leagues since I arrived at the University of Illinois, Urbana-C hampaign.
My thanks to them extend far beyond this book, to everything they have
done to make this position warm, welcoming, and a supportive intellec-
tual environment.
To the many people who have lived with me during this project as
roommates and friends, and who listened to endless recountings of the
chapters as I worked through them, I extend my warmest affection, par-
ticularly Sonya Levin, Meytal Ozeri, Evelina Kuchuk, Marni Rosen, and
Alex Buckley, who taught me how to use a comma. Randy Deshazo read
through the final version and his helpful comments carried me to the
finish line.
Phyllis Lassner steered this book through Northwestern Press and her
ix