LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

etween myth and historygonist Uri a symbol of that youth, which – according to the formative Israelimyth – bore the burden of the military campaign during the Israeli War ofIndependence. 6 Indeed, Uri became a synonym for the archetypal sabra warrior,who in his life, and particularly in his death, paved the way for a renewed Jewishindependence. 7 The novel as a whole was thus perceived as an expression of ahegemonic Zionist ideology and culture, which the novel’s characters do notonly fully accept, but also attempt at realising in their lives as well as in theirdeaths.Approaching the novel today, however, leaves the reader uneasy. Examiningit from the perspective of the present exposes a gap between the idyllic image ofthe novel and a complex, often unflattering image of Uri in the novel. One mayask, then, what determined the idealising reception of the novel and itsprotagonist, and what the functions of such a reception of the novel were. Thediscussion addresses this question within two poles. First, I explore the novel asquestioning, rather than reaffirming, the Zionist myth of the native Hebrew. Iargue that it examines the tension between myth and history that structures theimage of the New Hebrew Man; given that tension, the novel’s protagonist isdoomed to fail, as he indeed does. Second, I juxtapose the critical reception ofthe novel with the public reading of death and mourning in the young state ofIsrael. I argue, moreover, that one can understand the reception history of thenovel as informed by the same tension between myth and history so crucial tothe novel itself.He Walked in the Fields takes place towards the end of World War II. 8 Itsprotagonist Uri is the first-born son of a kibbutz in the Jezreel Valley. Returningto the kibbutz after having spent two years in an agricultural school, Uri comesacross Mika, a young refugee from occupied Europe. As a result of their loveaffair, Mika becomes pregnant. Before she herself learns of her pregnancy,however, Uri is summoned to a training camp of the newly formed Palma’h –shock troops that were to serve as the core of the Jewish military force in theanticipated armed conflict with the Palestinian-Arabs and with Arab armies.Uri’s absorption in the Palma’h convinces Mika that she cannot tell him abouther pregnancy and that she has to undergo an abortion. While a note from hismother makes Uri aware of the matter, he fails to act upon it. Preoccupied withhis personal affairs, he commands a live ammunition training session duringwhich one of the soldiers drops a hand-grenade. Uri jumps on it and dies of hiswounds the same day Mika goes to the abortion clinic and decides neverthelessto have the child.From his physical appearance as a young, tanned and muscular man to thedetails of his biography, Uri seems like an archetypal realisation of the NewHebrew, the ideal of Social-Zionist discourses. Not only is he a native of theland, but he is also one of its firstlings: the first-born child (and son) of a kibbutz— 111 —www.taq.ir