State of Shock: The Kibbutz in Israel from Avant-Garde to Fetish, 1948-1955 (Book talk)
State of Shock: The Kibbutz in Israel from Avant-Garde to Fetish, 1948-1955 (Book talk)
Dr. Lior Libman’s book, State of Shock: The Kibbutz in Israel from Avant-Garde to Fetish, 1948–1955, is a compelling new study that rethinks one of the most iconic symbols of Zionism and Israeli culture. Libman argues that the establishment of the State of Israel constituted a profound rupture for the kibbutz movement, destabilizing its original avant-garde vision and transforming it into a cultural and ideological “fetish” — a fixed object of yearning detached from its active historical role. Drawing on literary, theoretical, and historical analysis, the book explores how the kibbutz’s identity shifted in response to statehood, cultural trauma, and changing social conditions during the formative years of the Israeli state. This talk will introduce the book’s key themes, consider its broader implications for understanding Israeli society and collective memory, and include discussion with the author (or expert commentators) about the enduring legacy and symbolic power of the kibbutz in modern Jewish history.
Dr. Lior Libman is an Associate Professor of Israel Studies, and the Director of the Center for Israel Studies at Binghamton University. She is a literary scholar and cultural historian specializing in Socialist Zionism and the Kibbutz Movement. Her book State of Shock: The Kibbutz in Israel from Avant-Garde to Fetish, 1948-1955 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) explores the imagery and political imagination of the kibbutz in the stormy years of the transition from the pre-State yishuv to the State of Israel. Currently, Prof. Libman is working on two projects: one on the kibbutz-image in modern Hebrew literary canon, and the other on the Zionist Left in the aftermath of 1967.