A. B. Yehoshua and the Novel of Vocation

Abstract:Regardless of their specific professional identities as doctors, engineers, teachers or supervisors of various sorts, Yehoshua's characters tend to function as repairmen or repairwomen, tasked first with fixing themselves and then their families and nation through the social mosaic that Yehoshua builds in his novels. In an effort to overcome a crisis in their private lives, Yehoshua's characters learn to establish more attentive relationships not only within their close family circles but also in their workplaces, where they come into contact with representatives of diverse ethnicities, ages, ideologies, and religions. Following the tradition of the bildungsroman, the vocational pursuits of Yehoshua's characters are intertwined with family responsibilities and a search for love. However, by turning professional responsibilities into a higher calling, Yehoshua also engages with questions of national development in a manner that reconfigures the vocational mission of the prophets.