Eitan Bar-Yosef

Following my initial training (MPhil, DPhil) as a scholar of Victorian literature, my research has developed over the years in two parallel fields: British literature and culture, from the late eighteenth century to the present day, explored mainly through a postcolonial perspective; and Israel Studies, with an emphasis on Israeli literature and popular culture. Yet, at its core, my work has sought to trace and study the intricate affinities between these two fields – indeed, between these two cultures – in a variety of historical arenas and theoretical contexts, often focusing on the role played by cultural representations in the construction/projection of real/imagined geographies.

On the one hand, then, my scholarship has considered how Britain’s imperial and colonial involvement in the Middle East in general, and in Palestine specifically, shaped – and in turn was shaped by – British literature and culture; and, on the other hand, it has shown how the emergence of a Hebrew culture in Eretz Israel was informed by national, spatial, and racial fantasies often rooted in Zionism’s affiliation with the British Empire. Probing these questions, my work has employed three different scholarly approaches: literary criticism (with a decided interest in texts and contexts beyond the highbrow); Cultural Studies; and Theatre and Performance Studies. In doing so, I have sought to engage with multiple communities of fellow-academics and readers, both internationally and locally, in a wide range of venues.