Motherhood and nation: The voice of women artists in Israel's bereavement and memorial discourse

Abstract

This article offers an interpretive reading of current works of art by women that indicate the paradoxical place of the woman artist as a mother in the cycle of militarism and attitudes toward the discourse of bereavement and commemoration. My hypothesis is that the arts herald or anticipate the trauma by seeking to express something that may be called “pre- and counter-commemoration.” This interpretation of these artists' stance expands on insights arising from the notion of “counter-memory” to discuss a paradoxical form of commemoration that refuses to acquiesce in the cycle of militarism and memorialization. The article offers an integrated examination of theory and practices in the historical context of motherhood and nationalism and, specifically, of women artists in Israel in recent decades in the “discourse of bereavement” as opposed to the “discourse of the bereaved.”