Jewish-Muslim Relations in the Israeli Space in Yehoshua’s Literary Works · 271symbolic encoding of the space controls our life via routine uses of binary
metaphors, such as north-south, near-far, east-west. The foundation of
these metaphors is the border between the center and the periphery and
between “us” and “others,” and signifies inclusion and exclusion.^4
A. B. Yehoshua is a master of the threads that are melted into plots, fig-
ures, and spaces, which create a focus for interpreting his philosophical
understanding of “the life of the tribe.” His plots contain a repetition of
the “conceptual theme,” a repetition that is as essential as a genetic code
that generates these effects. This is a repetition of the “logical fatality”
that binds small social mechanisms (man, woman, nuclear family, ex-
tended family) with large social mechanisms (tribe, nation, and national
history).^5
In his works Yehoshua repeatedly relates the “life of the tribe” using
defamiliarization, which is a literary means that alienates a theme in order
to emphasize it. Defamiliarization is found not only in the presentation of
grotesque, realistic, and other figures but also in the descriptions of place,
space, and time. Yehoshua uses strange combinations of background ma-
terials and condenses them. This is how an experience of space that is
Paradise and that includes the dark side of Hell is created in some of his
stories. Space becomes demonic in these descriptions of Paradise and is
characterized by a distorted and demonic carnival atmosphere.
Yehoshua’s diverse works reflect social, political, and cultural issues
that pertain to past and present Jewish-Muslim relations in the given
space. His direct and indirect references to these issues are found in many
of his works: Facing the Forests, The Lover, and “The Last Night.”^6 They
also appear in The Liberated Bride and Mr. Mani and indirectly in A Jour-
ney to the End of the Millennium and The Mission of the Human Resource
Man.^7
In these works Yehoshua refers to the question of a common destiny
and the bond between the two peoples. An intimacy between the Jewish
hero and the Arab hero exists in the novel Facing the Forests. In The Lover
and A Journey to the End of the Millennium, Yehoshua presents the bond
between the Jew and the Arab as a closeness that sometimes exceeds the
bond between the Israeli and a Jew from the Diaspora. Nonetheless, in
The Liberated Bride he emphasizes the need for separation between the
two peoples, which stems, in his opinion, from the demonic situation of
being possessed. In this situation each party is pulled to the other side
and sometimes pays with its life.