Leaving Other People Alone reads contemporary North American Jewish fiction about Israel/Palestine through an anti-Zionist lens. Aaron Kreuter argues that since Jewish diasporic fiction played a major role in establishing the centroperipheral relationship between Israel and the diaspora, it therefore also has the potential to challenge, trouble, and ultimately rework this relationship. Kreuter suggests that any fictional work that concerns itself with Israel/Palestine and Zionism comes with heightened responsibilities, primarily to make narrative space for the Palestinian worldview, the dispossessed Other of the Zionist project. In engaging prose, the book features a wide range of scholarship and new, compelling readings of texts by Theodor Herzl, Leon Uris, Philip Roth, Ayelet Tsabari, and David Bezmozgis. Throughout, Kreuter develops his concept of diasporic heteroglossia, which is fiction’s unique ability to contain multiple voices that resist and write back against national centres. This work makes an important and original contribution to Jewish studies, diaspora studies, and world literature.
Authors
- Pages
- 320
- Published in
- Edmonton, CA
Table of Contents
- Front cover 1
- Title page 4
- Copyright page 5
- Dedication 6
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgements 10
- Introduction 12
- 1 Philip Goes to Israel 38
- 2 Herzl Meets Uris 88
- 3 Arab Jews, Polycentric Diasporas, Porous Borders 142
- 4 “The Jewish Semitone” 200
- Conclusion 248
- Notes 254
- Works Cited 288
- Index 304
- About the Author 321
- Other Titles from University of Alberta Press 322
