From Altneuland to Neuland. Re-Interpretation of Jewish/Israeli Identity in Modern Hebrew Literature
From Altneuland to Neuland. Re-Interpretation of Jewish/Israeli Identity in Modern Hebrew Literature

Summary/Abstract: In 1902, Teodor Hertzl, a prominent Jewish thinker and founder of political Zionism, published a utopian novel entitled Altneuland, in which he envisioned, based on ideas of egalitarianism, modern Jewish society in Palestine. In 2011, more than a hundred years after the utopia of Hertzl was published, the contemporary Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo, in a way referring to the book of the Zionist ideologist, wrote a moving Israeli family saga entitled Neuland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Israeli literature has developed, expressing the experiences and expectations of the young society. Modern Israeli literature developed from realism and a strong Zionist character, through revaluation of the Zionist myth up to the representatives of postmodernism focusing on the personal experiences of the protagonists, detached from the socio-political reality. Modern Israeli literature and in particular Eshkol Nevo’s novel, propose new approaches to literature in general and to Jewish and Israeli identity in particular.

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