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Paideia Intensive Text Course

Beginnings of Modern Hebrew literature

Dr Orr Scharf
Open University
March2016
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Beginnings of Modern Hebrew literature

16 teaching hours

Dr. Orr Scharf

orr.scharf@gmail.com

Dr. Orr Scharf was born in Be'er Sheva, Israel. He received his PhD. at the Department of
Philosophy, The University of Haifa, where he also earned his M.A. He holds a B.Mus in
musicology from The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at
the Open University of Israel. The title of his dissertation is Thinking in Translation: Scripture and
Redemption in the Thought of Franz Rosenzweig, which is now forthcoming from De Gruyter
academic press. Orr has also translated extensively, works spanning the Mishnah's Tractate
Sotah, essays by H.N. Bialik and Ahad Ha'am, and modern Hebrew literature.

Course Description

The course will provide a panoramic view of the emergence and evolution of modern Hebrew
literature from the late 18th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Examining the works
of key figures in the rise of Hebrew letters, we will be guided by the question "What is modern
Hebrew literature?" Was it shaped by modernism more than by its use of the Hebrew language
(as well as Yiddish), or vice versa? Does its preoccupation with Jewish life and Jewish themes
overshadow its relatedness to the contemporary modern literatures next to which it thrived?
Particular attention will be devoted to the tension between tradition and invention, socio-
historical processes and aesthetic perceptions. By way of conclusion, we will discuss the return of
this literary legacy to contemporary Hebrew writing

Bibliography

Simon Halkin, Modern Hebrew Literature from the Enlightenment to the Birth of the State of Israel: Trends
and Values. Schocken, New York, 1970.

Gershon Shaked, Modern Hebrew Fiction. Bloomington IN, 2000.

Robert Alter. The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language of Realism. Seattle,
University of Washington Press, 1988.
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