HEBR 407: Israeli Literature in Hebrew

Credit:   3 hours.
A man who has been announced dead 17 times; a woman who buys a bride dress and sets a date for her wedding even though she doesn't have a bridegroom; a young guy who falls in love with a girl who every night changes into a man; a woman who literally gets stuck to her husband – these are a few of the characters we'll meet in the course. The choice of works to be studied was based on two criteria: literary works that aren't too difficult for students of Hebrew to read and personal preference. I believe that sharing literary loves usually works. The students will be introduced to a variety of works: short stories and essays – and through them to different aspects of Israeli culture.

A partial list of issues we will discuss includes the socio-realistic tradition and the revolt of the imagination; the decline of collective ideology; different views of “the author's social role;” reflections of the Holocaust in survivors' works and in native Israeli works; problems of principal unique to writing about the Holocaust; immigration and immigrant's writing; women writers, womens' writing; and feminism in Israel.

Gail Hareven's visit is sponsored by the Program in Jewish Culture and Society and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago 's Israel Studies Project