2016 - 2017

0662-3236-01
  Popular Science for Youth: the Case of Jules Verne                                                   
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Tal KogmanGilman-humanities319àTue1200-1400 Sem  1
 
 
University credit hours:  2.0

Course description

During the 19th century science and technology gained a central place in the European culture. One of the main expressions of this process was the growth of popular science literature and science fiction, written for children and adults alike. This literature expressed the high prestige given to science and technology in western culture, and it dealt with their moral, social, religious, emotional and educational implications. In this period the corpus of Hebrew popular science literature and Hebrew science fiction enlarged, as a result of the activities of translation and writing source texts, and by publishing them in articles, stories and novels. The main target audience of this Hebrew literature was the Jewish youth. This course will deal with the dissemination of scientific and technologic themes in the Hebrew literature and especially in its branch of literature for youth. As a main case study, we will use Jules Verne's literature, which spread the message of science and technology in the second half of the 19th century. His books were translated into Hebrew as early as the 1870', and until today, they are an integral part of the Hebrew classical literature for youth. During the course we will read in books as Five Weeks in a Balloon, Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Dr. Ox's Experiment, From the Earth to the Moon and else, and will use them to examine the place of science and technology in the Hebrew literature.

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