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Paper short abstract

This presentation focuses on the various manifestations of the marvelous in contemporary Israeli popular culture, exploring its connection to nature and examining the roles such narratives play in present Israeli culture, particularly the ways they engage with the local landscape and Jewish folklore

Paper long abstract

This presentation will focus on the various manifestations of the marvelous in contemporary Israeli literature and popular culture, exploring its connection to nature and local landscapes. Demons and spirits dwelling in deserts and abandoned places, City Spirits inhabiting urban landscapes, and other supernatural entities embodied in nature are all part of the expressions of how the marvelous is deeply rooted and entangled with geographical spaces, the local landscape, the physical environment, and the surrounding climate.

From folk narratives to fantastic literature, looking through the perspective of the marvelous reflects, to a large extent, the collective subconscious of the narrating group at a given time. Therefore, it serves as a means of examining identities, concerns, conflicts, and tensions, in this case, within Israeli society and beyond.

Additionally, often drawing from the rich tradition of Jewish and Hebrew origins and their fantastic aspects, these works create a bridge between Jewish traditions and folklore and modern Israeli culture, re-imagining traditions, beliefs, and myths in dialogue with contemporary reality.

In this presentation, I will focus on the current works of some of the emerging voices in Israeli speculative fiction in recent years. Through a close reading and analysis of selected texts, in the light of theoretical approaches, I will examine the roles that narratives of the marvelous play in present Israeli culture, particularly the ways they engage with the local landscape, wherein culture and nature are intertwined.