Are We Still Dreaming? On the Lack of Utopias in Contemporary Israeli Speculative Fiction

Summary of the event

Shimon Adaf is a poet and writer from a family of Moroccan origin, whose output touches on several subjects: autobiography, and in particular his childhood and youth spent in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, a trilogy of detective novels in which he creates a hybrid genre - the fantastic detective novel. His most ambitious project is the loosely constructed series La Rose de Judée, which consists of three novels: Kefor (Givre, 2010), set in a Tel Aviv some 500 years in the future, an enclave of human beings inspired by ancient Jewish traditions subsists within a larger world populated by posthumans; Mox Nox (from the Latin, Bientôt la nuit, 2011), another initiatory tale combining alternative history, conspiracy theory and fantasy story elements inspired by Henry James and which won Israel's prestigious Sapir Prize. The third volume is 'Arim shel matah (Underground Cities, 2012). In 2023 he participated, with Assaf Gavron, in the "PostCap" project, a post-capitalist literary initiative conceived as part of a research group at Jerusalem's Van Leer Institute: four authors conceived four novels that share the same, collectively elaborated framework. Within this framework Shimon Adaf wrote Keshel Zikharon (Default of Memory, 2023). In addition to the Sapir Prize, Shimon Adaf has also received other honors for his literary work: Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works (2007), Yehudah Amichai Prize (2010).

Shimon Adaf teaches Hebrew literature at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, where he is head of the creative writing program.

Coordination: Anna Lissa (CERMOM)

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