Amos Oz

Ranen Omer-Sherman is Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence Endowed Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Louisville. His previous books include Imagining Kibbutz: Visions of Utopia in Literature and Film and Israel in Exile: Jewish Writing and the Desert.

"In a certain sense, perhaps this book represents a new way of reading Oz, one that moves away from the separations that characterized Oz during his lifetime: between internal and external, between Jerusalem and the kibbutz, between literature and journalism (and perhaps also between Jews and Palestinians). It also moves away from the separation between those who favored his political writings over his literary work, or those who rated him as an author but criticized him for his political views. Those dichotomies accompanied Oz throughout his life. Now, after his death, it is finally time to analyze him not only as an author but also as a cultural phenomenon." — Tel Aviv Review of Books"Amos Oz is a rich, complex, and eloquent edited volume. It breaks new ground in its vivid explorations of the social and political settings of Amos Oz's novels, short stories, and essays. It makes the case for how and why reading Oz provides critical insight into what Israel was and what the country has become." — Middle East Journal"Both a fitting tribute to Oz and an opportunity for readers to enter the complicated and often torn Israeli psyche … Highly recommended." — CHOICE"As Oz himself put it: 'Imagining the other is a powerful antidote to fanaticism and hatred.' He saw imagination as 'not only an aesthetic tool' but 'a major moral imperative.' Oz's pursuit of that imperative is a major theme of Amos Oz: The Legacy of a Writer in Israel and Beyond, a collection of illuminating essays on the author edited by Ranen Omer-Sherman." — Wall Street Journal"Any serious admirer of Amos Oz's extraordinary body of work will find much to ponder and enjoy in this thought-provoking anthology." — Jewish Book Council"This wide-ranging and important book of essays is a profound reminder of the figure we have lost and the issues that are at stake in the Israel of 2023." — The Jewish Chronicle"This important and timely volume addresses a lacuna in English criticism on Amos Oz, an author not only central in Israeli culture since the 1960s but also prominently positioned within the mode of world literature. The contributors offer a wide range of approaches to and engagements with Oz, from the scholarly to the personal. They invite us to consider Oz as a masterful author, an eloquent political commentator, and a complex human being." — Karen Grumberg, author of Hebrew Gothic: History and the Poetics of Persecution"This book reveals Amos Oz's extraordinary oeuvre. Ranen Omer-Sherman takes us on a mesmerizing scholarly journey between different periods and topics in Oz's work. This rich collection of articles does not escape the controversy around the work of Oz, but it rather leverages it into a brave, blunt, and uncompromising discussion not only about Oz's writing but also about Israeli society and the political power of literature. For those of us who are familiar with Oz's novels, this is an invaluable opportunity to reencounter them through the new readings offered in this collection, and for those who are less familiar with his work, this is a unique and festive invitation to enter the complex and rich world of one of the most influential novelists of modern Hebrew literature." — Ilana Szobel, author of Flesh of My Flesh: Sexual Violence in Modern Hebrew Literature"In chapter after chapter of this collection of essays about Amos Oz, I found myself surprised and excited to encounter a refreshing new array of insights into the life and legacy of this familiar cultural icon. This English-language North American perspective is bound to open up new opportunities for cross-cultural dialogue." — Yael Halevi-Wise, author of The Retrospective Imagination of A. B. Yehoshua

• Introduction: Amos Oz's Arduous Truths and AmbivalencesRanen Omer-ShermanPart 1. IN A RETROSPECTIVE MODE 1. Reflections on In the Land of IsraelDavid Grossman2. Hannah Gonen... and Me: A Personal EssaySidra DeKoven Ezrahi3. The History of a Long ConversationNurith Gertz4. Homeless between Two HomesAvraham Balaban5. My Michael, May 1967Nissim CalderonPart 2. NOMADS, VIPERS, AND WOMEN 6. Maternal Illness and the Israeli Body Politic at WarNitza Ben-Dov7. The Little Plot and the Big Plot in Oz's Early FictionOded Nir8. Oz's Literary Genealogies: Salvage Poetics in A Tale of Love and DarknessSheila E. JelenPart 3. COMING OF AGE: CONSTRUCTING THE HEBREW HOME(LAND) 9. Cat People: Coming of Age in Mr. Levi and Panther in the BasementAdam Rovner10. Tilling the Soil of National Ideology: Oz and the Hebrew Environmental ImaginationEric Zakim11. On Eternity: Homelessness and the Meaning of HomelandLiam Hoare12. The Dialogic Encounter between New and Old: The Biblical Intertext in Oz's FictionNehama AschkenasyPart 4. OZ AND THE OTHER: MIZRAHIS AND PALESTINIANS 13. Oz's Contentious Journey: In the Land of IsraelAdia Mendelson-Maoz14. Oz against Himself: Between Political Romanticism and Social Realism in Black BoxJoshua Leifer15. "Like Belfast, Rhodesia, or South Africa": Oz and the Ideologies of OsloMoriel Rothman-Zecher16. And They Lived Separately Ever After: The Two-State Solution as Literary EndingVered Karti ShemtovPart 5. DREAMERS, ICONOCLASTS, AND TRAITORS 17. Of Howling Jackals and Village Scenes: A LamentYaron Peleg18. Exultation, Disillusionment, and Late Inspiration: Oz's Once and Future KibbutzRanen Omer-Sherman19. From Tragedy to Betrayal: Judas and the Subversive Politics of Oz's Last ActSam SussmanAfterword: About My FatherFania Oz-SalzbergerContributorsFurther Reading: Critical Resources in EnglishIndex