Abstract
In a critical essay dedicated to Menachem Brinker, written before his passing in 2016, Yuval Evri and Almog Behar critically examine the foundational premise of his final book, Hebrew Literature as European Literature. While their analysis includes historiographical perspectives, Evri and Behar primarily argue that the concept of 'Europeanness' in Hebrew literature, as posited by Brinker, is not an inherent literary characteristic but rather a geopolitical aspiration. They contend that this becomes particularly apparent in the melancholic realization of Hebrew literary critics that 'Hebrew literature and Israeli reality are diverging from the European ideal.' Evri and Behar's Mizrahi literary critique does not aim to dismiss the yearning for Europeanness; instead, it seeks to uncover it as a desire, trace its roots to a specific historical moment during the era of national revival, and shift it from being an unspoken, anxiety-driven political impulse (which might carry the risk of being perceived as a 'grievance among the complainers') to a negotiable textual stance.