Under this Blazing Light

The first publication in English of political and personal writings by Israel's most famous living author.

Amos Oz (Author), Nicholas de Lange (Translated by)

9780521443678, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 March 1995

220 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.6 cm, 0.422 kg

"This collection of essays reveals the personal and political thoughts of Israel's novelist and give perspective to the author's own experiences and development." Shofar

This collection – published here in English for the first time – brings together a number of political, personal and literary pieces by Israel's most celebrated novelist and littérateur. Topics covered include: an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a dispute between 'right and right'; reflections on the character of Zionism, on the concept of 'homeland', and on the nature of the kibbutz; the meaning of socialism in the Israeli context; and portraits of several Jewish writers and thinkers whose ideas and themes in one way or another have proved influential or determinative for Amos Oz himself. These essays, which put a unique perspective on the author's own experiences and development, reveal a complex and humane figure of practical political influence as well as of significant literary stature. They will win for Oz new readers, while delighting those who will recognise here the qualities evident in his other writings.

Preface
Introduction
Events and books
Under This Blazing Light
'Man is the sum total of all the sin and fire pent up in his bones'
'A ridiculous miracle hanging over our heads'
The State as reprisal
A modest attempt to set out a theory
The meaning of homeland
The discreet charm of Zionism
A. D. Gordon today
Thoughts on the kibbutz
The kibbutz at the present time
How to be a socialist
Munia Mandel's secret language
Pinhas Lavon
The lost garden
An autobiographical note
An alien city
Like a gangster on the night of the long knives, but somewhat in a dream
Notes
Publication history
Index.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ]