THE RUSSIAN PROSE IN THE CONTEXTS OF ISRAELILE IDENTITY: CULTURAL FRONTIER OR THE CASE OF MARGINAL NATION-BUILDING

The author analyzes the problems of history of Israeli prose in Russian. The literature of Israel develops as a heterogeneous literature, because the country became home to Jews who came from different European countries, bringing with them their literary traditions and other national languages that were different from Hebrew. Russian literature of Israel or literature in Russian language is an integral element of modern heterogeneous and partially multicultural Israel, despite the tendencies of gradual nationalization of political and cultural spheres existing in modern Israeli society. It is assumed that Russian writers of Israel contributed to the formation and development of its political identity. The author believes that Israeli writers who immigrated to Israel from the USSR could be Zionists or they were neutral towards political ideology. It is assumed that Israeli prose in Russian, on the one hand, became a form of intellectual situations of postcoloniality and postnationality. On the other hand, the author points out that Israeli literature in Russian became part of the cultural frontier because it belongs to Russian and Israeli cultures and identities simultaneously. Actually, the Russian authors of Israel in these intellectual and cultural situations became incomprehensible to modern Russian readers because they perceive Russian realities as alien and foreign ones. It is logical to assume that Russian literature in Israel will exist for a few decades and become part of the literary history of Israel.