The kibbutz novel as erotic melodrama

Abstract

Prominent Israeli writers and critics have repeatedly claimed that it is nearly impossible to write a realist social novel in a social reality that is still in the making. The challenge faced by kibbutz writers was even greater, given the great dynamism of the kibbutz as an arena of social experimentation and the incongruity between a positive, common experience, and the personal, gloomy themes expected from “good literature.” In their attempt to overcome these difficulties, most kibbutz writers produced erotic melodramas set against a documentary background. Had they followed Georg Lukács's and Mikhail Bakhtin's advice, they might have made the kibbutz the narrative material of their novels' plots themselves, rather than the “background” of erotic melodramas.

Keywords:

• fiction
• realism
• surrealism
• existentialism
• pioneers
• kibbutz
• Bakhtin
• Lukács
• Kafka
• Agnon
• Brenner
• Oz

Notes

 1 Shapira and Abir, eds., Hartza'ot Berl Katznelson, 25.

 2 Katznelson-Shazar, “Nedudei lashon” (Language migration) (1918), in idem, Masot ve-reshimot, 17; see also Shapira, Brenner, 222.

 3 Tzur, Ahavah tekhaseh, 10–11.

 4 Yosef Haim Brenner, “Mikan umi-kan” (From here and there) (1911), in idem, Ktavim, 2:1266–67.

 5 Yosef Haim Brenner, “Ha-zhanr ha-eretz-yisre'eli ve-avizareihu” (The Eretz Yisrael genre and its properties) (published in Ha-Po'el ha-Tza'ir, August 1911), in idem, Ktavim, 3:571.

 6 Baruch Kurtzweil, “Ha-sipurim ha-eretzyisre'eliyim le-Yigal Mosenzon” (Yigal Mosenzon's Eretz Yisrael Stories), Ha'aretz, 25 September 1946.

 7 Oz, “Under this Blazing Light,” in idem, Under This Blazing Light, 21–27.

 8 Govrin, Brenner, 181.

 9 Govrin, Brenner, 188.

10 Kurtzweil, “‘Pat shlemah,’” 145–47; Shaked, Gal hadash.

11 See Kurtzweil, Masekhet ha-roman, 380–99.

12 Barzel, Bein Agnon le-Kafka.

13 Gertz, Hirbat hizah, 77–78.

14 Shamir, Ha-omdim ba-pirtzah, 103.

15 Moshe Shamir to Meir Yaari, 2 July 1947, in Halamish, Meir Ya'ari, 303.

16 Mosenson, Derekh gever, 248–53.

17 Yehuda Burla, “Sefer pasul” (An unacceptable book), Davar, 12 March 1954.

18 Rachel Katznelson-Shazar, “‘Derekh gever’ le Yigal Mosenzon” (Yigal Mosenzon's Man's Way ), Dvar ha-Po'elet 19, no. 11, November 1953, 220.

19 Shaked, Ha-siporet ha-ivrit, 4:277–79.

20 Shaked, Ha-siporet ha-ivrit, 2:288.

21 Reuven Kritz, introduction to Kritz and Kritz, Sipurei ha-kibbutz, 1:32.

22 See ibid., 47.

23 Ma'ayan Zigdon, “Mamshikh lalekhet” (He keeps on walking), 25 April 2010, http://www.nrg.co.il/online/47/ART2/098/081.html (accessed 15 February 2012).

24 See Keshet, Ha-mahteret ha-nafshit, 154.

25 David Maletz, “Yesodot be-Shoffman” (Elements of Gershon Shoffman's prose), Davar, 22 July 1937.

26 Zeira, Af be-knafayim shvurot, 214.

27 Maletz, Le-darko ha-to'ah, 84.

28 Maletz, Le-darko ha-to'ah, 87.

29 See Zvi Luz, “Be-midrakhot tzarot” ([Birstein's] Narrow Steps), Niv ha-Kvutzah (May 1953): 345–46.

30 See Inbari, “Sipurei ha-kibbutz.”

31 Oz, Menuhah nehonah, 382.

32 Shaked, Ha-siporet ha-ivrit, 5:213.

33 Milner, “Sipur mishpahti,” 94.

34 Lukács, The Historical Novel, 83.

35 Lukács, The Historical Novel, 85, 143.

36 Lukács, The Historical Novel, 144.

37 Lukács, The Historical Novel, 159, 175.

38 Lukács, The Historical Novel, 182.

39 Lukács, Ha-roman ha-histori, 5.

40 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,”109, 110.

41 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,”109, 218.

42 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,”109

43 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,”109, 209, 217.

44 Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,”109, 247.

45 See ibid., 247–48.

46 Agnon, Tmol shilshom, 642.

47 Laor, Hayei Agnon, 372.