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- Title
שגגה.
- Authors
רבקה אלפר
- Abstract
The story 'Mistake' by Rivka Alper, published here in full for the first time, is probably the first rape story in Modern Hebrew literature depicted from the victim's perspective. The essay 'Suffocated Voices' by Ilana Szobel and Orian Zakai, featured alongside the story, sheds light on the poetic and political mechanisms at play in the story, in the hopes of highlighting the importance of Alper's voice for the study of gender in Modern Hebrew literature. 'Mistake' unfolds the story of Dina, a young woman-pioneer, raped by a young man from Tel Aviv, while she is visiting the city. By sensitively representing the dynamics of exploitation, objectification, and traumatic dissociation, as well as the victim's feelings of shame and guilt, her social marginalization, and her inability to find healing within the patriarchal pioneer community, Alper offers a poignant and critical perspective on Zionist rape culture. Dina's gendered perspective allows her to represent the rape, on the one hand, as a shocking terrible experience, but also, on the other hand, as part of a wider spectrum of various instances of sexual violence and harassment that she and other women-pioneers experience frequently. Hence, while Dina's personal experience of rape may not directly confront the Zionist project, it uncovers concealed problematic facets of that project, which aimed to create a secure haven for the Jewish people but ultimately fell short in safeguarding the well-being of women's bodies, leaving them vulnerable to persistent gender-based and sexual violence.
- Subjects
TEL Aviv (Israel); SEXUAL assault; HEBREW literature; GENDER-based violence; RAPE culture; SOCIAL marginality; RAPE
- Publication
Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature, 2024, Vol 33, p410
- ISSN
0333-693X
- Publication type
Article