Israeli Fantasy and Science Fiction: Fantastical Time/Space and the Modern Promised Land

Sat, March 11, 2023 1:00 PM at Natural Sciences Building Room 304

The notion of ‘The Promised Land’ is simultaneously known and familiar and inherently incomprehensible. It is conceptually both a real place that one must reach and conquer, and it is also a nebulous idea of promise and prosperity. Focusing on twenty-first century Israeli Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF), Weiss outlines a division between Judaic Israeli SFF and Universalist Israeli SFF texts.

The former uses the Promised Land time/ space to engage with Jewish and Israeli culture as the main focal point, and the latter rejects such associations. Weiss also examines SFF that engages with the Promised Land time/space in a sporadic manner, situating local Jewish and Israeli concerns within global issues, and vice versa, which she terms Hybrid Judaic Universalist Israeli SFF. The three kinds of Israeli SFF adhere to transcultural SFF generic ontological conventions, forging a fundamental unifying bridge between Israeli and global readers.

This event is in-person and live-streaming on YouTube: Serling Institute for Jewish Studies (serlinginstituteforjewishs8606)