Nostalgia in Oral Histories of Israeli Women

In her article "Nostalgia in Oral Histories of Israeli Women" Yael Zilberman explores the narration of nostalgia of elderly women about the city of Be'er Sheva. In their narration, the subjects of the study create textual and spatial practices which are engendered and create analogies between the city, their maturing/ed bodies, and by-gone youth. Further, the grief owing to the perceived condition of the city intensifies the idealized description of the city and the longing for its past. Zilberman's study brakes new ground in that the study of urban experience within folklore is a lesser explored field as the urban environment is considered by many folklore scholars as a deterioration folklore in the country side. Since the 1980s, however, urban folklore has been gaining scholarly attention and women and more so elderly women represent one such group. Yael Zilberman, "Nostalgia in Oral Histories of Israeli Women" page 1 of 2 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.4 (2012):