What Was - and Is - Hebrew Literature? A Review Essay (original) (raw)

Hebrew Literature in the ‘World Republic of Letters’

Israel Studies Review, 2018

This article charts the international reception of modern Hebrew literature over the last hundred years. It brings large-scale data on the translation of Hebrew literature into conversation with current studies on the dissemination of ‘small’ languages around the world. We pay special attention to publishing trends, genres, literary awards, and other indicators of international recognition. More broadly, we question the scope and definition of a body of literature whose ancient traces have become invisible through translation and whose international readership includes, to some extent, members of its ‘own’ nation who do not share, however, the same language, territory, or cultural experiences. Our goal is to provide a more nuanced understanding of the presence of Hebrew literature beyond its national borders.

The Advent of Modern Hebrew Literature

This is a summary of the book “The Advent of Modern Hebrew Literature” by Gershon Shaked. One of the most important books on Modern Hebrew Literature. Reviewed and summarized by Mohammed Alghbban.

Hebrew in English: The New Transnational Hebrew Literature

Although the historiography of Hebrew literature has often retrospectively portrayed its development as an Israeli phenomenon, recent scholarship has shown the ways in which Hebrew literature’s origins lie largely in the Diaspora. Two new books by Israeli writers written in English, Shani Boianjiu’s The People of Forever Are Not Afraid and Ayelet Tsabari’s The Best Place on Earth, return to the diasporic roots of Hebrew literature by deliberately placing themselves as a challenge to the Zionist narrative of literary historiography. This article elaborates the ways that these books use English to explore the transnational nature of Hebrew literature and participate in a larger literary conversation about globalization. Their linguistic experimentation is also tied to the thematic challenges they pose to foundational Israeli mythologies, like that of the New Hebrew Man, through an emphasis on marginal characters and themes. This literature, which I call “Hebrew in English,” stands as a critique of hegemonic constructions of Israeli identity, nationalism, and culture.

A New Hebrew Literary Diaspora? Israeli Literature Abroad

Although the modern stage in the development of Hebrew began in Europe about two hundred years ago, after 1948 the language and its literature became confined for the most part to the state of Israel. The tumultuous course of Jewish history in the past two centuries has by and large emptied the Jewish Diaspora of Hebrew. And yet in the past few decades we are witnessing a growing number of Hebrew writers who are no longer confined by geography. Although they still publish their works in Israel, they write them elsewhere, mainly in the United States and Europe. Increasingly, too, their works reflect their habitat as well as the peoples and cultures of their countries of residence. Are we witnessing the birth of what can perhaps be termed a " post-national Hebrew " era, an era in which Israel remains an inspiring cultural center, but no longer the only location for the creation of original works in Hebrew? This article looks at various Hebrew novels that were written outside of Israel in the last few decades and examines the contours of what may perhaps be a new chapter in the history of modern Hebrew.