Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture

by Ilana Pardes

Overview

Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers explores the response of Israel s Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon to the privileged position of the Song of Songs in Israeli culture. Standing at a unique crossroads between religion and secularism, Agnon probes the paradoxes and ambiguities of the Zionist hermeneutic project. In adopting the Song, Zionist interpreters sought to return to the erotic, pastoral landscapes of biblical times. Their quest for a new, uplifting, secular literalism, however, could not efface the haunting impact of allegorical configurations of love. With superb irony, Agnon's tales recast Israeli biblicism as a peculiar chapter within the ever-surprising history of biblical exegesis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295804774
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	11/26/2013
Series:	Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ilana Pardes is professor of comparative literature at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Upon the Handles of the Lock

2. The Song of Songs as Cultural Text: From the European Enlightenment to Israeli Biblicism

3. Rechnitz s Botany of Love: The Song of Seaweed

4. The Biblical Ethnographies of Edo and Enam and the Quest for the Ultimate Song

Epilogue Forevermore

Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert Alter

This new study confirms Ilana Pardes as one of the most deeply interesting scholars in the field of comparative literature.

Editorial Reviews

In her vital contribution to Agnon studies, Ilana Pardes delivers a richly multifaceted exploration…[that]will be valuable reading for any dedicated student of modern Hebrew literature and culture. Its impact on Agnon scholarship will surely be significant and lasting.

Hebrew Studies - Joseph Bowie

In her vital contribution to Agnon studies, Ilana Pardes delivers a richly multifaceted exploration…[that]will be valuable reading for any dedicated student of modern Hebrew literature and culture. Its impact on Agnon scholarship will surely be significant and lasting.

Hebrew Studies - Ramen Omer-Sherman

"Agnon's Moonstruck Lovers deftly reveals the resonance between the Song of Songs and Agnon's literary universe. Both envelope the reader in world hovering somewhere between, in Pardes' words, 'dreams, daydreams, and reality.'" -Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, January 6, 2014

From the Publisher