Ruth Essex

This comprehensive critique explores the relevancy of old discourses for contemporary narratives in ten Israeli novels. How the theory of deconstruction affects the future of a nation as presented in aspects of these literary texts is the focus of this book. The texts represent the meeting of ancient lore and modern narrative, as well as the conflict between a demanding past and the threat implied in an open future. The fragmentary quality of Israeli fiction denies the guarantee of unity and contravenes a fixed interpretative contextual discourse. The major tensions that call for a repositioning of critical standpoints underlie the textual contradictions that pose existential crises for their protagonists and an exciting challenge for the reader.

This book examines the work of the Norwegian Modernist feminist, Cora Sandel (1880-1974), a contemporary of Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson and Sigrid Undset. This first study of her in English defines Sandel as a precursor of contemporary feminist thought and analyzes her text for its innovative approach and provocative message. It offers insight into a creative woman's insistent efforts to re-envision her narrative in order to secure the alterity necessary to replot her destiny.