| Abstract: | This article attempts to trace the literary genealogy of a unique Zionist Israeli masculinity through a reading of the biblical story of Samson as portrayed by prominent Israeli figures. Through a close reading of the biblical text in Hebrew, this article posits that the figure of Samson represents a 2-prong individuation process of malehood: one the “everyman” and the other “a man among man.” This slight difference in the Hebrew phraseology, usually assumed to reflect a singular meaning, actually represents an enormous gap between the 2 prongs. A reading of a poem by a female Jewish poet who, in the early 20th century read Samson through the eyes of Delilah, offers a new construction of manhood that could save the Israeli Jewish male from its colonialist ideology and its denial. |
