Slouching Towards Jerusalem: Reactive Nationalism in the Irish, Israeli and Palestinian Novel

Slouching towards Jerusalem is a unique contribution to comparative literature - Irish, Israeli, and Palestinian - that deals with the under-researched phenomenon of reactive nationalism - emotional rather than ideological nationalism. It is the only comparative study of its kind involving the three literatures, reflecting its author’s long term engagement with two arenas of conflict: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Northern Irish conflict. The book surveys these through the eyes of contemporary novelists from both arenas. Slouching towards Jerusalem’s selection is wide and varied, and includes both lesser-known and emergent novelists. Author John Maher is a prizewinning novelist himself, who uses various prisms - of language, land, religion, love, war, and the changing image of the enemy - in his quest for insight into the realities behind the novelists’ portrayals of their situations. His conclusions are iconoclastic and challenging as befits such a unique journey into the three contrasting contemporary literatures.