A critical introduction to contemporary Israeli literature that places works and writers in their cultural and social context. Five essays explore facets of what Mintz calls the complexity of cultural reverberations in Israeli fiction of the past two decades, a period during which "literature and the institutions of literary culture became the principal mode of encountering and mediating modernity." Among the major concerns addressed are the emergence of female writers, characterization of redefined gender roles, re-imagining the Holocaust, de-marginalization of Sephardic writing, and adoption of innovative techniques like magic realism and experimental narrative strategies. The collection shows how contemporary Israeli literature both chronicles and confronts cultural and societal dichotomies -- collectivism vs. individualism, native Israelis vs. Holocaust survivors, male vs. female, religion vs. secular, Ashkenazic vs. Sephardic -- that characterize a nation whose self-conception has been shaped by its complex and conflicted history. CONTRIBUTORS: Robert Alter, Nancy Berg, Yael S. Feldman, Anne Golomb Hoffman, Alan Mintz, Gilead Morahg