Description
ISRAELI LITERATURE offers visions of human existence from a wide range of cultural perspectives. We will trace early 20th century writing as the Zionist movement grew; continuing with Israeli contemporary novels and concluding with a 2017 American Jewish writer’s novel placing American Jews in Israel. Each story and novel explores self-definition and the question of what it means to be a human being.
Weekly Topics
Introduce the subject of early Hebrew literature reading short stories “The Way Out” by Y.H. Brenner; “Agunot” by S.Y. Agnon; “The Prisoner” by S. Yizhar
Short stories continue with “The Times my Father Died” by Y.H. Brenner; “Before His Time”, Amos Oz; “Facing the Forests”, A.B. Yehoshua
Introduce Amos Oz. Read first half of “My Michael”
Finish “My Michael”
Introduce A.B. Yehoshua. Read the first half of “Mr. Mani”
Finish “Mr. Mani”
Introduce David Grossman. Read first quarter of “To the End of the Land”
Read second quarter of “To the End of the Land”
Read third quarter of “To the End of the Land”
Finish “To the End of the Land”
Intoduce Meir Shalev. Read first half of “The Pigeon and a Boy”
Finish “The Pigeon and a Boy”
Introduce Nicole Krauss. Read the first half of “Forest Dark”
Finish “Forest Dark”
Bibliography
Modern Hebrew Literature, ed. by Robert Alter, Behrman House, 1975
My Michael, Amos Oz, Knopf, 1972
Mr. Mani, A.B. Yehoshua, Doubleday, 1992
To the End of the Land, David Grossman, Vintage, 2008
The Pigeon and a Boy, Meir Shalev, Random House, 2007
Forest Dark, Nicole Krauss, HarperCollins, 2017
