Komizm a wojna. Wybrane dzieła satyryczne współczesnej literatury hebrajskiej jako reakcja na rzeczywstość kraju pogrążonego w konflikcie

The aim of this article is to show how Hebrew writers, from the 1960s to the second decade of the 21st century, have been using humour in their texts referring to contemporary socio-political realities. For a start, the author looks at the role of satire as, on the one hand, a way of venting the growing social discontent, and as a tool of political struggle on the other. From there she goes on to pinpoint the association between individual works (pieces from Hanoch Lewin’s cabaret shows, written around 1970, Yitzhak Laor’s poem from the late 1980s, a lyrical piece by Avner Treinin from the early 21st century and Etgar Keret’s short stories published three years ago) with cultural, historical, social and political determinants, with special emphasis on the Israeli-Arab conflict, which has been casting a shadow on the life of the Israeli people and Hebrew artists for decades. Thanks to the fact that she stays focused on a single subject over a long period of time the author manages to demonstrate how the attitude of the Israeli people to the authorities’ policies evolved over the years and how the Israeli satirical writings changed along with this evolution. Each piece is accompanied by the author’s bio and the historical and social background and an analysis of the means of artistic expression employed in order to achieve the desired comical effects.