LITERATURE AND NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

etween myth and historyheroic act of the creation of the kibbutz as a social community, ex nihilo as itwere, that terrifies Uri. 12 Rather, he is alarmed by the realisation that a kibbutzmeans a mundane, everyday, continued struggle to maintain a life of agriculturallabour as the foundation of family and communal life. In short, the kibbutzmakes Uri anxious because it marks quotidian historical time. Whereas Uri couldimagine himself performing the heroic acts of the mythical hero, he fears thathe is not up to the task of participating in the everyday struggle that the kibbutzrepresents. In this context, Uri sees the pregnant female body as signifying thehistorical time of the kibbutz and identifies in it the demand to enter historicallife: a life of toil, responsibility, and death at an old age. And Uri rebels againstsuch a destiny. Only a radical solution would undo this radical disruption of hislife. Abortion, Mika’s death or his own would undo the demands of humanhistory, and Uri considers all three.Uri first considers abortion and Mika’s death, but he immediately realisesthat in these fantasies he exempts himself from responsibility for their affair andits outcome. Thus, these fantasies are soon transformed into the fantasy of Uri’sown death:He must take part in her suffering. It’s not possible that she’d suffer alone. You mustsuffer, must, in some way or another, be as miserable as she is, more than she is, morethan her – to be the victim of something horrible, of something that will make peopleforget all of her things, so they’d say – who would say? – so they’d say: – well, poorMika – but Uri, see, – Uri fell. […] And everybody would look at Mika and indicatewith great interest and she would be so bereaved and proud. […] There you have it,how a strong, sturdy fellow fell. (Shamir 1947: 331)Uri abandons himself to the fantasy of his death, for it would solve severalproblems simultaneously: First, it would exempt him from the need to give upthe life of the Palma’h and return to the kibbutz. Second, as he imagines, itwould compensate for Mika’s suffering as well as for his irresponsibility.Ultimately, his death would save Uri from the shameful circumstances withinwhich he finds himself, relieve him from the impending threat of historicaltime, and transfigure him into a mythical hero.Uri’s death would accomplish this only if it were not just a ‘simple death’;rather, it must be a heroic one, realising the myth of the fallen hero. That is,Uri’s death would satisfy his desire only if he indeed fell while defendingPalestine as the Jewish homeland. His actual death, however, is ambivalent: atraining accident in the best of cases, suicide in the worst. Uri commands handgrenadetraining. After he presents his subordinates with ‘the most wonderfulthrow he had ever seen’ (Shamir 1947: 338) of a live grenade, Uri summons theworst soldier in the platoon for the first throw. The soldier personifies a reversalof Uri’s image: a new immigrant from Germany, untidy and ridiculous. When hedrops the ignited grenade two steps away from the trench, Uri jumps, catches— 115 —www.taq.ir