<strong>The “Double Triangle” Paradigm:</strong> National Redemption in Bi-generational Love Triangles from Agnon to Oz

Abstract

This paper examines a dominant plot structure in Israeli fiction, where two generations mired in dysfunctional love triangles are historicized in relation to each other through a shared lover. Suggesting that this plot pattern is so prominent in Hebrew fiction that we can approach it as a distinctive national paradigm, this study argues that the paradigm's significance has less to do with oedipalized representations of neurotic youth seeking parent substitutes than with a negotiation of national redemption staged between two generations who vie for the interpretat tion and control of historical processes. Through the figure of the shared lover, second-generation characters evaluate their options in light of past expectations, tracing a nutshell history of modern Zionism from its initial rejection of messianic yearnings to an ongoing reassessment of the demands of statehood. The paradigm's capacity to encapsulate such a vital history-in-the-making explains why this specific plot structure has been so attractive to Hebrew writers during an extended period of national formation and consolidation.