Creating Communities: Towards a Description of the Mask-Function in Literature

How does historical reality interrelate with fiction? And how much are readers themselves involved in fictional literature? With innovative interpretations of various well-known texts, Nourit Melcer-Padon introduces the use of literary masks and illustrates literature's effects on its readers' morality. She facilitates a new perception of literary theory and of connections between thinkers such as Iser, Castoriadis, Sartre, Jung, and Neumann. The book offers a unique view on the role of the community in post-existentialist modern cultural reality by emphasizing the importance of ritual practices in literature as a cultural manifestation.