10:20a-11:35a D (10) 3 cr.
OFFERED WITH JSTU L480, NELC N587, AND RSTU R300.
TOPIC: MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
"Laugh, and the world laughs with you; cry, and you cry alone"-this saying characterizes the meteoric rise of satire as a leading literary form in Hebrew literature at the turn of the twentieth century. To laugh at the other, only to realize that one is laughing at oneself, served Hebrew writers well. At the time, they undertook the process of social and cultural reform of Jewish life, as the latter emerged from a religion-centered worldview to take an active part in modern, western society.
This course will trace some of the processes of social transformation in which Hebrew literature took an active hand. In L380, we will learn about the "shtetl," the small east European town where most Jews lived. Concepts and issues such as short Fridays, Red Jews, the distorted replay of biblical situations in the present, and the challenges to faith in a secular world will lead us through a selection of some of the best readings in modern Hebrew literature. Students will be challenged to consider the issue of theodicy, or divine justice, in a world dominated by technology and science. We will meet idiots who believe they were born to explore the world, lovers who cannot be happy, and stories of unhappy marriages, divorces, and endings.
Readings will consist primarily of representative short stories, a novel, and a work of non-fiction for background information. Some selected poetry will also be read in class. All readings will be directed to illuminate the manner by which Hebrew writers expressed their views concerning personal and universal experiences such as the loss of innocence and tradition in a modern world, nationalism, the Holocaust, wars, peace, the individual, and the image of the new Israeli-in-the-making. Modern Hebrew authors and poets will be read. Emphasized will be the stories of S.Y. Agnon, Israel's greatest storyteller and Nobel Prize laureate. His vision and influence will be explored as pertaining to the dilemmas of faith in a secular world, one's search for a lost paradise, and the possible solutions offered in face of such an impossible journey. Students will be guided through the readings. The course is offered in English and without any prerequisites, except a willingness and desire to read and learn.
Our readings will emphasize the connotative component of language as employed by literary arts. No proper communication of the meaning of the readings, however, is possible without reliance on the denotative aspects of language. For that reason, students will be introduced to critical analytical skills in approaching writing through the medium of the selected readings, videos and related cultural components covered in the course. Instruction will be provided in the techniques, strategies and organization of good writing.
Mechanical skills, such as grammar, punctuation, spelling and style will also be included. Different analytical methods will be introduced, some specific to the Hebrew literary selections employed in the course, and the general topics of literature.
Assessment of student progress will be based on demonstrated improvement in writing skills and strategies. A midterm and final exam will be used to determine student comprehension and impromptu expression.