From a Girl in Khaki to a Woman in Black : A Feminist Reading of Yael Dayan

Offers a feminist analysis of Yael Dayan's literary works, examining how they challenge dominant Israeli narratives through themes of gender, sexuality, nationhood, and belonging. From a Girl in Khaki to a Woman in Black offers a close study of the fascinations, continuities, and ruptures in the work of the Israeli writer, politician, and activist Yael Dayan (1939-2024). In addition to Dayan's five novels—New Face in the Mirror (1959), Envy the Frightened (1960), Dust (1963), Death Had Two Sons (1967), and Three Weeks in October (1979)—the book also examines her war journal, A Soldier’s Diary (1967); her autobiography, My Father, His Daughter (1985); and her memoir, Transitions (2016). In reading Dayan's work across different genres, the book critically analyzes Dayan's portrayals of national identities and Israeli historical narratives, the role of memory and the Shoah, sexuality and love, ageism, and religion, as well as her representations of the enemy and war. The book further highlights subversive and unexpected aspects in Dayan's texts that demonstrate the violence of national constructions and how the experiences of age, sickness, and gender undercut them. Dayan's literary journey ultimately leaves us with an equivocal narrative of a gendered society of war "heroes" and mothers, engaged in a tortuous relation with a tragic European past and a muted Palestinian other.