| Summary/Abstract |
This article discusses the unique nano-poetics and its nano-representation of the Israeli milieu, as found in Yossel Birstein’s short-short bus-stories. While these stories demonstrate the author’s poetics, they also constitute a miniature replica of Israeli society, emphasising the following four major aspects of this society: (1) the tension between the Jewish past and the Israeli present; (2) the complex dynamics between private and public life; (3) the gap between newcomers and veteran immigrants; and (4) a mentality dominated by nervous tension combined with the unique form of audacity known as chutzpah. Birstein presents the bus both as the inspiration for and as the object of his writing, and this narrative framework showcases the many variants in Israeli culture.
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