Book Proposal: Shattered Visions—Hebrew Dystopian Literature and the Undoing of Zionist Redemption

Overview and Aims

This book investigates the dystopian turn in Hebrew literature from 1980 to the present, focusing on how the year 2000 marked a key ideological shift in Israel’s self-conception. While earlier decades were shaped by a buoyant expectation of peace—anchored in a redemption narrative that treated the Holocaust as a “founding trauma” necessitating the creation of a sovereign Jewish state—post-2000 Israeli society increasingly embraced a bleak outlook of “forever living by the sword.” By analyzing a series of dystopian novels that emerged against the backdrop of a stalled peace process, the intensification of occupation, and ongoing cycles of violence, Shattered Visions contends that these texts serve as literary harbingers: they predict catastrophe not as an abstraction but as an inevitability rooted in social, historical, and political realities.

Through the critical lens of Dominick LaCapra’s ideas on trauma—particularly the role of “founding traumas” and the phenomenon of “narrative fetish”—the book argues that while Holocaust memory once sustained a linear story from loss to redemption, recent dystopian fiction fractures that reassuring plot. Instead of viewing the state as salvation, authors increasingly portray it as a source of existential peril. This study explores how these works convey a collective “pre-PTSD” condition, demonstrating that many Israelis see the next violent rupture as not merely possible but unavoidable.

Key Arguments

  1. The Post-2000 Geopolitical and Existential Turn

    The breakdown of high-profile peace negotiations around the year 2000—alongside the intensification of military conflict and the social entrenchment of occupation—radically altered Israel’s prevailing ethos. If the 1990s offered glimpses of a two-state resolution, the early 2000s replaced them with an acceptance that Israel might be perpetually at war. Literary texts from this period register this shifting mood: they abandon the once-hopeful narrative framework and foreground grim, future-oriented visions of societal disintegration.

  2. The Holocaust as Founding Trauma and Narrative Fetish

    Drawing on LaCapra’s concept of “narrative fetish,” this book contends that Israeli public discourse has frequently used Holocaust commemoration as a linchpin for justifying present-day policies and validating the very existence of the state. In the conventional story, the Holocaust represents an unparalleled loss that necessitated the creation of Israel as a redemptive shelter for Jews worldwide. Yet the dystopian novels explored here disrupt this neat trajectory. Rather than continuing the theme of loss-to-redemption, they reframe Israel itself as precarious, potentially harmful to its own citizens, and rife with moral ambiguity. By turning attention from a tragic past to a frightening future, these texts deconstruct the habit of celebrating national survival and question whether the cyclical invocation of the Holocaust might serve as an unexamined “founding trauma” that obstructs genuine critical reflection.

  3. Pre-PTSD and the Inevitable Disaster

    The third argument applies LaCapra’s insights on acting out vs. working through trauma to the Israeli context. Whereas earlier generations might have “acted out” Holocaust trauma via a redemptive Zionist narrative, these dystopian novels hint at a different pattern: pre-PTSD—a collective certainty that the occupation and constant militarized vigilance cannot endure indefinitely. Authors portray protagonists who anticipate calamity, reflecting a society unable to reconcile its moral anxieties with political realities. This pervasive dread suggests an inability to truly “work through” national traumas; instead, the destructive force is projected onto the future, creating literature tinged with both apocalyptic foreboding and ethical restlessness.

Significance and Contributions

  1. Bridging Holocaust Studies and Israeli Literary Criticism

    By introducing Dominick LaCapra’s psycho-historical framework to the study of contemporary Hebrew fiction, Shattered Visions widens the scope of traditional Holocaust scholarship. Instead of focusing solely on Holocaust memoirs or immediate survivors’ testimonies, the book explores how the “founding trauma” seeps into national myths and shapes imagination decades later—particularly when historical events collide with post-2000 transformations.

  2. Revisiting the Zionist Redemption Narrative

    The work intervenes in Israeli cultural discourse by exposing the narrative arc from Holocaust devastation to state-building triumph as an increasingly contested story. Dystopian novels, with their emphasis on social collapse and existential dread, signal that the older narrative of redemption may be losing its power. This pivot resonates beyond academic circles, illuminating the unsettled nature of Israeli national identity in times of political deadlock and societal fragmentation.

  3. Introducing the Concept of Literary Pre-PTSD

    The book highlights how futuristic novels can articulate a phenomenon akin to “pre-PTSD,” where characters (and by extension, their authors and readers) operate under the looming specter of another cataclysm. Although rarely treated in literary analysis, this collective unease—a sense that the next catastrophe is imminent—shapes much of Israel’s cultural output after 2000. This perspective enriches trauma studies with an innovative category, expanding beyond the typical focus on retrospective trauma.

Chapter Breakdown

  1. Introduction: From Redemption to Ruin
    • Synopsis: Sets the stage by mapping the shift in Israeli societal mood around 2000. Situates the study within the theoretical frameworks of LaCapra, focusing on how “founding trauma” influences collective narratives.
    • Key Texts: Overview of early Zionist ideologies and post-2000 political developments.
  2. A ‘Forever War’ State of Mind
    • Synopsis: Explores how the collapse of the peace process hardened attitudes toward perpetual conflict and shaped the new dystopian literary wave. Illustrates that post-2000 authors, previously confident in an eventual settlement, now imagine a sealed fate of unending militarization.
    • Key Texts: Close readings of novels set in near-future Israel, blending political commentary with stark warnings of social decay.
  3. Narrative Fetish and the Holocaust: Dismantling the Redemptive Arc
    • Synopsis: Applies LaCapra’s notion of “narrative fetish” to show how frequent evocations of the Holocaust became self-reinforcing myths that discourage introspection. Analyzes novels that consciously upend the heroic premise of “survival-turned-statehood.”
    • Key Texts: Works explicitly referencing Holocaust memory to complicate or undermine national triumphalism.
  4. Pre-PTSD and Dystopian Foreboding
    • Synopsis: Develops the concept of “pre-PTSD,” tying it to characters and authors who view disaster as locked-in and unavoidable. Shows how the inability to properly “work through” (in LaCapra’s sense) earlier traumas fosters an obsessive fixation on impending violence.
    • Key Texts: Focus on novels with protagonists haunted by the future rather than the past, illuminating the broader culture’s anxiety.
  5. Ethical and Literary Implications
    • Synopsis: Addresses why these dystopian visions matter beyond academic discourse: they raise ethical questions about the uses of trauma, the moral hazards of occupation, and the responsibilities of cultural producers. Considers whether dystopia can rouse communities to self-reflection.
    • Key Texts: Syntheses of multiple dystopian narratives, along with interviews or statements from contemporary Israeli authors on the role of writing in crisis.
  6. Conclusion: Shattered Visions, Uncertain Futures
    • Synopsis: Summarizes how these dystopian works challenge the longstanding narrative of Holocaust-as-legitimacy while sounding alarms about a future overshadowed by inevitable conflict. Suggests pathways for further research on how trauma, memory, and moral responsibility intersect in Hebrew literature and Israeli society more broadly.

Target Audience and Market

  • Academic Scholars: Specialists in Israeli literature, Holocaust studies, cultural studies, trauma theory, and comparative literature will find new theoretical connections and interdisciplinary insights.
  • Graduate Students: The clear synthesis of LaCapra’s frameworks and close literary readings make this text an accessible entry point for those studying modern Hebrew letters or trauma in literature.
  • General Readers: Policymakers, journalists, and readers interested in Israel’s political-social trajectory will gain a nuanced portrait of how post-2000 existential crises permeate cultural production and collective memory.

Expected Impact

Shattered Visions seeks to reframe both scholarly and popular understandings of Israeli identity, moving beyond a “loss-to-redemption” account often grounded in Holocaust invocation. By demonstrating how dystopian literature captures a pre-PTSD sensibility, it encourages conversations about the moral and political complexities of living under constant threat—and the ways in which traumatic history can become either a catalyst for critical reflection or a locked narrative fetish. The book thus contributes to broader dialogues on how societies collectively recall the past, imagine the future, and negotiate the uneasy terrain between.