Outline of a Gender Conflict: Notes on an Early Story by Dvora Baron

Abstract

This article examines Dvora Baron’s early story Zug mitkotet… (skitza) (A quarreling couple… [sketch]), about a young married couple drawn into a verbal and physical altercation. I propose that this early story already shows intimations of symbolism and complexity that characterize Baron’s later stories, as well as the first signs of the blurring and encoding of female protest that are characteristic of the second half of her work. Baron did this mainly by adapting the conventions of early twentieth-century male literature – private themes, short genres and fragmented language – and employing their meaning and purpose for female needs.