The Señora Quartet, by Yitzhak Gormezano Goren: A Restructuring of Zionism in the Sephardic Style

Abstract:This article discusses Yitzhak Gormezano Goren's Señora Quartet. The four novels, published between 2010–2019, present Dona Gracia Nasi and her dedicated efforts to help the Jews of Spain and Portugal, who were persecuted by the Catholic Church. The Quartet is reviewed in light of the characteristics of the historical novel, with an emphasis on the genre's role in the postmodern age as one that seeks to challenge the hegemony. The Quartet presents a counter-narrative to the classic Zionist narrative and positions alternative Sephardic elements in place of each of the classic Zionist cornerstones: the visionary of the state, the political vision, the perception of the Jewish ghetto, and negation of the Diaspora. The article also examines the manner in which carnivalesque poetics serves the "narrative coup" proposed by the Quartet.