The dissertation "Modern Israeli short story" focuses on the form of the current short prose studied on the work of four of the renowned Israeli contemporary authors. Employing the method of text comparison we try to illustrate the specifics of the modern Israeli short story. The dissertation contains both the theoretical overview as well as analytical material. The authors were selected according to several criteria: two male and two female writers which enables us to determine whether "gender" plays a role - meaning if each author favors heroes of a specific gender or if they focus only on "female" or "male" contents. We also chose two native Israeli writers and two authors of foreign descent that immigrated to Israel which enabled us to study the linguistic angle and to realize whether the writer's background is reflected in his/her work. The analytical parts as well as the amendments contain a number of samples which prove our conclusions.

This paper delves into the realms of tragedy, memory and representation. Drawing upon the phenomenon of the Phantom Limb and extending it towards a theory of Phantom Bodies, various artworks - literary, theatrical and visual - are examined. After the conflagration of the terrorist attack, how are these absences grieved over and remembered through artistic representation? The essay examines this question by positioning itself amongst the scarred landscapes of post-September 11 New York and suicide bombings in Israel (2000-2006). Furthermore, it investigates whether humanity can be restored in the aftermath of an event in which certain individuals have sought to eradicate it. The fragmentation of the affected body in these scenarios is understood as further complicating processes of grief and remembrance. Artists who reject political polemic and engage with the dimensions of human loss are seen to have discovered means of referring to the absence caused by the act of terrorism. Three such recurring representations present themselves: ash and remnants, presence/absence and memory building. Phantom Bodies are perceived as simultaneously functioning as a reminder of the event itself, insisting upon the response of bearing witness, and as a symbol of the overwhelming power of humanity. Challenges arise when individuals or sections of the affected society deem these artworks to be inappropriate or explicit. Works considered include: Neil LaBute's play The Mercy Seat, Sigalit Landau's art installation The Country, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Spike Lee's 25th Hour, Daniel Libeskind's architectural plans for the World Trade Center site, Eric Fischl's sculpture 'Tumbling Woman', Honor Molloy's autodelete://beginning dump of physical memory and A.B.Yehoshua's A Woman in Jerusalem. The accompanying play, Tales of Ash: A diptych for the theatre, is set in Melbourne, New York and Tel Aviv and deals with life in the face of and after terror. It veers between naturalism, poetic monologue and the epic. Tales of Ash contains two plays. The first centres on Mia, a young sculptor living in New York, who loses both her lover and her creativity on September 11. Upon returning to her home in Melbourne, she finds familial bonds still entwined with guilt and family trauma. The second play revolves around Ilana and Benny, two people living in Tel Aviv, who find themselves suddenly thrust together after a devastating bombing. As they attempt to resume rhythms of life, in the face of all the inherent ferocity of a modern existence in Israel, the struggle between The Ash Woman and The Ash Takers escalates.

The current study investigates changing attitudes to militarism within Israeli society since the tumultuous decades following 1948. Events leading to the current state of Israeli society will be traced in order to illustrate the way in which change occurs. The shifts in Israeli history and society during these decades will be examined alongside developments in Israeli literature. Accordingly, eight works of fiction have been selected to lie at the heart of the study. These works, all of which centre around the Israeli military experience, convey an erosion of personal, national, and ideological certainties. The analysis of these works demands three areas of exploration: the depiction of the soldier in the civilian setting, the depiction of the soldier as he interacts with other soldiers in the military sphere, and ‘post-Zionist’ military fiction produced in recent decades. These three areas of exploration entail an interrogation of gender, nationalism, and ‘post-Zionism’ in contemporary Israel. The works examined in the third chapter contain commentary not only upon the social reality of their authors, but also upon the way in which Israeli literature engages with the issues that inform its existence. (For complete abstract open document)