The author of this book argues that Israeli traumas exist in the language, poetics, and politics of Israeli literature. Presenting a comprehensive and methodical study of this phenomenon, this book raises piercing questions concerning the politics behind literature and its moral authority, focusing specifically on the responsibility of the author. Hever tracks the literary processing methods of Israeli traumas in light of the extermination of European Jews, the 1948 war, the Palestinian Nakba, and the 1973 war in the works of S. Yizhar, Leah Goldberg, Avoth Yeshurun, Nathan Alterman, Aharon Appelfeld, Dan Pagis, Erez Biton, Yitzhak Laor, Shimon Ballas, Haim Be’er, and Rivka Ben-Hayim. The book offers a rigorous discussion of the unique manners in which literature deals with representations of traumas. This research presents the traces of Israeli post-trauma represented in the literary text, and tackles the question of responsibility among fictional characters.

Table of Contents: Elchanan Reiner - Joshua is Rashbi, Hatzor is Meron: On the Typology of a Galilean Foundation Myth James Nathan Ford and Alon Ten-Ami - An Incantation Bowl for Rav Mešaršia son of Qaqay Shulamit Elizur - Esa Meshali (I Shall Present my Lesson) Matti Huss - The Beginning of Joseph Ibn Shimeon’s Ne ' um Toviyahu ben Zidqiyahu Yosef Ofer - Why Did Nahmanides Misread the Inscription on the Sheqel Coin? Hannan Hever - The Trauma of the Lady of the Palace Bezalel Bar-Kochva - The Essaioi: A Fiction or Historical Reality? Rachel Elior - Essenes or ‘ha-Kohanim bnei Zaddok and Their Allies’ . A Response to Bezalel Bar Kokhva, ‘The Essaioi: A Fiction or Historical Reality?’