2016 - 2017

0680-3265-01
  Micha Yosef Berdichevsky, his Imprint and his Presence                                               
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
Prof. Avner HoltzmanGilman-humanities307Mon1800-2000 Sem  2
 
 
University credit hours:  2.0

Course description
Micha Yosef Berdichevsky is often thought of as the father of modern Hebrew fiction, the writer who most impressively broke with the tradition of the Enlightenment period. His stories demonstrate the gaping chasm between the certainty of traditional Judaism and the divided consciousness of his generation. The extraordinary intensity of identity crises in Berdichevsky’s fiction derives from the  profound synthesis of the autobiographical and the historic, both his own life experiences and those of his contemporaries at large find their way into these important early works.
This course will explore the persistent presence of Berdichevsky in the world of modern Hebrew literature. Among the issues discussed: the challenge he posed for his contemporaries; Berdichevsky as a founding father of Expressionist Hebrew fiction; Berdichevsky as a forefather of the 'Canaanite' idea; Berdichevsky as an ancestor of the 'Statehood Generation' in Isaraeli literature; Berdichevsky as a precursor of secular Judaism.

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