Course Description:
The course will be taught by Karen Grumberg from University of Texas at Austin
Modern Hebrew literature is a literature of in-betweenness, poised against dichotomies and dualities in place, culture, language, and influence. Writers in Europe, the Arab world, and the U.S. were composing secular texts in Hebrew long before the establishment of the state in 1948. Many continued writing about the Diaspora even while living in Israel. And several non-Jewish Israeli authors write in Hebrew. Further complicating the Hebrew literary paradigm, even a “native son” of Israel and one of its most canonical authors, Amos Oz, portrays himself as an outsider.
The texts we will study in this course span the twentieth century. Their authors were native speakers of Russian, Yiddish, Arabic, and Hebrew; they originated in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East; they include Jews, Muslims, Christians, and atheists. Each text pits two forces against one another and engages with the resultant tensions. This encounter offers us a more complex understanding of seductively simple binaries: Arab and Jew; Israel and Diaspora; self and other. Ultimately, it is in their breakdown that we can better understand Hebrew literature as inherently de-centered and fragmented – a literature rich for its in-betweenness.
Learning outcome
After having attended this course students will be able to analyze and discuss specific features of modern Israeli literature as relating to issues of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue in the modern Middle East. Furthermore, students will have acquired the relevant methodological tools from modern literary and literary-sociological theory that will enable them to write productively about issues of linguistic and cultural “duality”, which has been a prevalent issue in the Middle East for centuries. The theoretical insight gained by the students will be based on an in-depth overview of pertinent specimens of modern Israeli literature.
Course Policies and Requirements:
Attendance and vigorous participation
Periodic presentations of readings
Presentation of research project to class at end of semester
Research paper on topic of your choosing (8-10 pgs.)
"Assessment is based on a final paper ("semesteroppgave"). Students must present a draft ("førsteutkast") of this paper in class."