 2014 - 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0602-6155-01 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 2.0
Course description
Homogeneity or Heterogeneity: Israeli Children’s Literature
Between the Melting Pot and Cultural Pluralism
Rima Shikhmanter
The tension between a homogenous social vision in the form of a melting pot and the demand for the recognition of the right of existence of diverse cultures has accompanied Israeli society since the establishment of the State through to today. The children’s and young adults’ literature published in Israel has not only given expression to this tension but also frequently served as a space in which Israeli society has dealt with the conflict between the two trends. In recent decades, as recognition of the legitimacy of various identities has grown, Israeli children’s literature has faced a dual challenge: to serve as a means for preserving the continuity of the national culture on the one hand and to be the voice of cultural pluralism on the other.
In this course, we shall examine the way in which children’s literature gives expression to this tension. Among other things, we shall see how cross-cultural encounters have been presented in the past and present, investigate the textual and visual representations of different nationalities and their culture, and discuss the textual attitude towards issues of identity and the freedom of cultural expression.
Via a reading of original and translated texts, we shall seek to demonstrate that, contrary to expectation, earlier children’s literature exhibited an ambivalent attitude towards the melting pot policy while that published in more recent years frequently displays a hazy and conflictual attitude towards the ideas of cultural pluralism.
The authors from whose works we shall read include Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar, Leah Goldberg, Astrid Lindgren, Naomi Samuel, Cyril Hahn, and others.
Between the Melting Pot and Cultural Pluralism
Rima Shikhmanter
The tension between a homogenous social vision in the form of a melting pot and the demand for the recognition of the right of existence of diverse cultures has accompanied Israeli society since the establishment of the State through to today. The children’s and young adults’ literature published in Israel has not only given expression to this tension but also frequently served as a space in which Israeli society has dealt with the conflict between the two trends. In recent decades, as recognition of the legitimacy of various identities has grown, Israeli children’s literature has faced a dual challenge: to serve as a means for preserving the continuity of the national culture on the one hand and to be the voice of cultural pluralism on the other.
In this course, we shall examine the way in which children’s literature gives expression to this tension. Among other things, we shall see how cross-cultural encounters have been presented in the past and present, investigate the textual and visual representations of different nationalities and their culture, and discuss the textual attitude towards issues of identity and the freedom of cultural expression.
Via a reading of original and translated texts, we shall seek to demonstrate that, contrary to expectation, earlier children’s literature exhibited an ambivalent attitude towards the melting pot policy while that published in more recent years frequently displays a hazy and conflictual attitude towards the ideas of cultural pluralism.
The authors from whose works we shall read include Yemima Tchernovitz-Avidar, Leah Goldberg, Astrid Lindgren, Naomi Samuel, Cyril Hahn, and others.