אימהות לחיילים בספרות הישראלית

המקרה של אשה בורחת מבשורה מאת דוידגרוסמן

תקציר

This article addresses the national-political functions of mainstream Hebrew literature and focuses on one question: What are soldiers' mothers in the canonical literature "allowed" to think, feel and do, and what is considered transgressive in this regard? The article examines changes in the presence of soldiers' mothers in Israeli public life, starting from the First Lebanon War. At the center of the discussion is Grossman's novel To the End of the Land (2008).Olmert argues that the book posits "the flight from bad tidings" as a maternal strategy, but simultaneously as the author's psycho-poetic strategy, too. The analogy between the act of flight and the act of writing, which Grossmanadvances in his epilogue, along with the granting of ‘his' parental role to a female protagonist, bear cultural and gendered significances which this article seeks to illuminate.