282 · Carmela Saranga and Rachel Sharaby
turns into a “shadow” in the darkness and “the forest bewitches her”
(119). Contrary to the demonological stories, in which the man leaves
the land of the demons and the forest and returns to his home, it is the
woman who abandons the forest and enters the world outside the forest.
Similarly to the demonological stories, the Arab in this story accompanies
the hero into the land of the demons. However, the situation can also be
viewed the other way around, with the figure of the demon being inter-
changed between the Jew and the Arab.
Yehoshua claims that “we have a tendency to drive the non-Jews crazy.
By delving deep into the identities of other peoples, we threaten them.
... Our lack of clarity and our invasiveness scare them and lead to these
sick interactions between us and them.”^46 In Yehoshua’s works, space is
divided into areas in which the figures move in and out of their circles
or up and down in forced journeys from the focus to a delusional space
and cross borders. They search for the areas of pain above and below the
surface, and at the end of the process they discharge themselves or are
discharged out of the circle against their will.
In A Journey to the End of the Millennium, Yehoshua integrated the figure
of an Arab partner, Abu Lutfi, into the story’s web. Abu Lufti leads his
partner, Ben Atar, through the forests of Europe into a parallel land of de-
mons called Worms. In this land Ben Atar is banned because he does not
maintain clear borders and does not observe the laws and also because
of his uncontrollable passion to enter the other’s space.^47
Yehoshua’s figures are drawn to the forbidden, and sometimes they
pay for this with their lives, as does Joseph ben Avraham in Mr. Mani,
who wanted to convert the others to Judaism and was murdered. How-
ever, there are also heroes who are directed by figures who lead them to
their oblivion in a parallel world dominated by demons, such as Rashad
in The Liberated Bride. Rashad is described in this work as occupying the
lower compartment of Paradise: “Protean driver, messenger, brother,
cousin, uncle, displaced citizen, and dybbuk for a day” (503). This de-
scription is indeed a surrealist description of something part human, part
demon.
According to Yehoshua’s worldview, release is embedded in the need
to place borders, to unite within your community, to return from the
north to the south, to come up from the cellars and to return to the land
that will solve the distress of existence.^48 However, because of the he-
roes’ inability to live in the given space, they choose an alternative space.