Tag: Hebrew literature | Israel studies | Literary criticism
Depictions of nature played an essential role in early modern Hebrew fiction. Abraham Mapu’s The love of Zion (1853) inspired many with its radiant picture of an idyllic landscape. But it seems that the “land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8) did not keep its promise in the futures envisioned by contemporary authors.
In Orly Castel-Bloom’s Human parts (2002), early 21st-century Israel is hit by extreme climate events, while terror attacks and a deadly influenza claim countless victims across the country. In a constantly gloomy weather, invisible enemies cast an ever-present shadow of death where natural phenomena and the conflict merge into each other. Post-apocalyptic Israel is the setting of Hydromania (2009) by Assaf Gavron. The year is 2067, a global drought changed the world, and Israel has lost much of its territory to enemies.
Anxiety over climate change is a common motif in speculative fiction. But such cases suggest that in Israel it intermingles with the concern about local reality, producing depictions of hostile nature as a metaphor for an everlasting conflict.