Between the Covenants

”Yesh” Literature and “Ein” Literature in “Love in the Telephone” by Shulamit Hareven

Abstract

This essay attempts to offer an unconventional interpretation of Shulamit Hareven’s “Love in the Telephone” – a polar, deceptive and multi-garbed story. It is exceptional among Hareven’s writings and, as a consequence, has been given relatively little attention. This work analyzes the story from the perspective of the concept of Popular Literature (“Yesh”) as opposed to Counter Literature (“Ein”) against the background of “playing literature”. One element is that the story also has an unusual metaphysical dimension, despite the fact that Hareven herself opposed any kind of interpretation of literature. A further element will resolve the lack of congruence between Hareven’s belief about the nature of good literature – that is expressed in most of her work and especially in her essays – and the exegesis of the story. Finally, this essay will interpret “Love in the Telephone”, based upon the characteristics of playing Literature, and will show the connection between this story and other works belonging to this genre, pointing to the uniqueness of the story in question.