Collected here for the first time in Hebrew, the selection of essays offers theoretical space and historical
mapping that respond to the challenge provoked by these questions. The essays discuss the invention of
past time and the imagination of geographical space in institutional discourse, scientific inquiry, cultural practice
and political activism. The contemplative text unfolded by the volume, reflects on Eurocentric discourse and
multicultural thought; Zionist historiography and oriental identities; Hollywood¼s orientalism and subversive
cinema; the narrative of the nation and postmodern perspective; feminist literature and postcolonial theory.
The volume makes unusual links among diverse histories, geographies, theories, disciplines and fields of
knowledge. The readers will become acquainted with essays written over the past two decades whose
intervention is surprisingly fresh and courageous in its effort to read critically the politics of culture.

Ella Shohat is a scholar, critic, and professor of cultural studies at New York University. Her work includes
award-winning books and numerous anthologized essays. Her writings were translated from English into French,
Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish and German, inspiring a young generation of scholars, artists and
political activists.

Upon the publication of her first book, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation
(NYU, 1986; University of Texas Press, 1989; and under the Hebrew title Israeli Cinema: History and Ideology,
Breirot, 1991, Dyunon, 2000), the book sparked a public controversy, contributing to the shaping of a new
agenda for the critical debate in Israel. Her more recent book Talking Visions, deals with visual culture and
multicultural feminism in a transnational age.