Dr. Moran Benit

Department of Hebrew Literature

Subject: Ronit Matalon: A Writer and Intellectual

Supervisor: Hannan Hever

Abstract: My research project is devoted to the Mizrahi Israeli writer Ronit Matalon. Despite her canonic status in contemporary Israeli literature, her work has not to date been adequately studied by scholars and critics. Through close readings of her fiction and non-fiction publications over the last three decades, the research examines the process whereby Matalon has become a major Mizrahi intellectual and writer in Israeli culture. Besides Matalon’s own Bildung the project examines a parallel process experienced by her protagonists: all young Mizrahi women going out into the world and establishing their identities as educated, women writers.

Presidential Stipend 2012/13