Representation of the religious sector is a new phenomenon in modern Israeli literature, emerging from a diversification of Israeli culture that began in the 1970's. Barbara Landress here explores the intricacies of fiction about Orthodox women in contemporary contexts, offering a subtle interpretation of the conflicts in Orthodox women's lives as they weave their way through daughterhood, motherhood, politics, and personal dilemmas, negotiating between tradition and modernity. Drawing on sociology, anthropology, and feminist theory, this body of Israeli women's writing is considered in comparative perspective with American feminist fiction of the 1960's and 1970's as well as with contemporary American Jewish women's writing that engages |