ABSTRACT
The discipline of sociology is the product of both the modern imaginaries in which it was historically rooted and of their related analytical categories, which it simultaneously formed. The chapter presents the inherent problems typifying sociology as a discursive reflective practice and presents theories of sociology of knowledge, mnemohistory, and postcolonial critique. These set the backdrop to an examination of Eisenstadt’s sociological conjectures in relation to Zionist political mythology. Apart from unfolding Eisenstadt’s intellectual biography, the chapter introduces the term “Zionist imaginary” to refer to the pervasiveness of Zionism’s political memory as a mechanism of national identity construction. Based on the interconnected myths of land, origin, and revival, the Zionist imaginary assumes its irrefutability and preempts the possibility of adopting an external critical view of it, as it glosses over the settler-colonial premises that lie at its core. The mythical foundation of Zionism provides the external and internal legitimation to its political program and tends to obfuscate the very possibility of thinking this project critically. The Zionist imaginary not only constitutes the discursive realm through which the social and political reality in Israel is thought, but it also establishes its political mythology as a sphere of “truth”. Congruently, such sphere is also constituted as a sphere of social normativity, where the challenging of these “truths” can potentially be considered an act of social deviancy.
