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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
DEPARTMENT OF HEBREW AND SEMITIC STUDIES
ISRAELI FICTION IN TRANSLATION
Hebrew 343
Dr. Miri Talmon-Bohm
Tuesday and Thursday: 2:30 PM-3:45 PM
Classroom: 395 Van Hise Hall
Office Hours
Dr. Talmon-Bohm’s office: 1342 Van Hise Hall.
Phone: (608) 262-2968.
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:00-1:00 PM; Thursday 12:00-1:00 PM, and by
appointment.
Email: talmonbohm@wisc.edu
SYLLABUS
Fall Semester, 2008
Course Description
This course explores the diversity, complexity and richness of the Israeli cultural scene. Through a discussion and analysis of diverse literary texts, we shall discover different trends in Israeli literature and cultural history from the first decade of the state of Israel to the present. The texts we shall study offer a view of diverse social, ethnic and gendered experiences, generational sensibilities, and fundamental contradictions which underlie the Israeli experience. The fictional characters- religious and secular, masculine and feminine, lovers and enemies, native and new comers, insiders and outsiders- clash and interact, creating a fascinating cultural tapestry. Important aspects of this fictional world relate to Israeli history, to the national and social formations that shape the individual experience: Jewish history in the Diasporas, the Holocaust, immigration, war, conflict and terror, militarism and bereavement, different spatial arenas and forms of life, such as kibbutz, army base, old and new cities.
Class Lectures and Discussions: Preparation and Attendance.
This Course requires active participation, and an ongoing dialog
between students and texts. It is therefore absolutely vital that you
prepare for each and every class. This means you have to read carefully
the literary text assigned in advance, and prepare it for the
designated date, as scheduled in the syllabus.
There will be a written assignment of preparation for every class,
which will be graded and returned on a weekly basis. The grade for
preparation to class and written assignments comprises 40% of the final
grade. Each assignment you fail to submit reduces this component of
your grade.
Attendance and participation in class discussions comprise 10 % of the course grade. Students who miss over 2 classes will lose this component of the grade.
Course Reader
The course focuses on short stories. In addition, there will be
poems, and additional sources, which shed light on the literary,
cultural, historical, or social context of the literary pieces.
All the texts, for which full references are given in the syllabus
below, are compiled in a reader. The reader will be available as class
packet from the L&S copy center at the Social Science Building, and
you are expected to bring it to every class. The texts in the reader
will be available in the library on reserve as well.
Final Exam
The exam requires a comparative analysis of texts we have discussed in class. You will be asked to discuss a particular topic in at least three texts. The topics will be discussed throughout the course, and reviewed in the last two sessions of the course, on December 9 2008, and December 11 2008. The exam will take place on December 16 2008, at 10:05 AM-12:05 PM. It counts for 40% of your course grade.
Lecture and Film Assignment
In appendix 1, at the end of this syllabus, you can find titles and descriptions of the Center for Jewish Studies lectures scheduled for this fall. These lectures will enrich your learning experience and expand your academic horizons beyond the classroom space.
Students are expected to attend at least one lecture and one film
screening out of the events detailed in appendix 1, and are encouraged
to attend as many as they can. Following the lecture and film screening
that you have attended, you need to write a one page long critique, in
which you explain what you liked about it, and how it is relevant to
your own studies, interests, or personal experience. Attending at least
two events, and your critical essays, which you have to submit in the
following class, will credit you with 10% of the final grade for the
course.
Grading Scale
Preparation and weekly assignments: 40%
Attendance and participation: 10%
Final exam: 40%
Film and lecture assignment: 10%
Syllabus and Reading Schedule *
* You should read and prepare in advance the text/s designated for each date, except for the first class, September 2, 2008.
September 2, 2008
Keret, Etgar:”The Story About a Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God. In:
Keret, Etgar. THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES.
Translated By Miriam Shlesinger. New Milford: The Toby Press, 2004: 1-4.
September 4, 2008
Keret, Etgar: “Journey”. In: Keret, Etgar. THE GIRL ON THE
FRIDGE-STORIES. Translated By Miriam Shlesinger. Ct, New Milford: The
Toby Press, 2004: 105-108.
September 9, 2008
Zarchi, Nurit. (1993) “Madame Bovary in Neve Tsedek” translated by
Miriyam Glazer. In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY
BY ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press, 2000: 27-32.
Additional reading: ”Introduction to Nurit Zarchi’s “Madame Bovary in Neve Tzedek” In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000: 24-26.
September 11, 2008
Bar Yosef, Hamutal “Jaffa, July 1948”(1981) translated by Shirley
Kaufman. In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY
ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press, 2000: 327.
Matalon, Ronit. “Photograph” (1992), translated by Gal Keidar with Miriyam Glazer. In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000: 193-199.
September 16, 2008
Tammuz, Benjamin. “The Swimming Race” (1951)translated by Joseph
Schachter. in: SLEEPWALKERS AND OTHER STORIES-THE ARAB IN HEBREW
FICTION” edited by Ehud Ben-Ezer. Boulder and London: Lyne Rienner
Publishers, 1999: 73-84.
September 18, 2008
S. Yizhar, “The Prisoner” (1949) translated by V.C. Rycus in:
SLEEPWALKERS AND OTHER STORIES-THE ARAB IN HEBREW FICTION” edited by
Ehud Ben-Ezer. Boulder and London: Lyne Rienner Publishers, 1999:
57-72.
September 23, 25 2008
Oz, Amos. “Strange Fire”(1965), translated by Philip Simpson. In: THE
OXFORD BOOK OF HEBREW SHORT STORIES, edited by Glenda Abramson. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: 284-308.
Additional reading:
Balaban, Avraham.“Between God and Beast” in BETWEEN GOD AND BEAST: AN
EXAMINATION OF AMOS OZ’S PROSE. Pennsylvania State University, 1993:
79-103.
September 30, 2008
No class, Rosh HaShana
October 2,7 2008
Yehoshua, Avraham B. “The Last Commander”(1957), translated by
Pauline Shrier. In: THE OXFORD BOOK OF HEBREW SHORT STORIES, edited by
Glenda Abramson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,
1996: pp. 220-236.
October 9, 2008 No class. Yom Kippur
October 14, 16, 21 2008
Kahan-Carmon, Amalia. “N’ima Sasson Writes Poems”. (1966) translated by
Arthur Jacobs. In: RIBCAGE-ISRAELI WOMEN’S FICTION. Edited by Carol
Diament and Lilly Rattok, Hadassah-The Women’s Zionist Organization of
America, 1994:48-66
Additional reading:
Rattok, Lily “Introduction: The Other Voice” In: RIBCAGE-ISRAELI
WOMEN’S FICTION. Edited by Carol Diament and Lilly Rattok, Hadassah,
The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, 1994pp. xvi-xxxiv.
October 23, 28, 30 2008
Librecht, Savyon. “It’s Greek to You”, She Said to Him”(1993),
translated by Marganit Weinberger-Rotman. In: DREAMING THE
ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited
by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000: 83-98.
Additional Reading:
“An Introduction to: ‘“It’s Greek to You”, She Said to Him’ In:
DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY ISRAELI WOMEN
WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000: 81-82.
Additional Reading:
Liebrect, Savyon. “The Influence of the Holocaust on my Work”. In: Leon
Yudkin, editor. HEBREW LITERATURE IN THE WAKE OF THE HOLOCAUST.
Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993: 125-130.
November 4, 6, 11 2008
Keret, Etgar. “Rabin’s Dead“In: Keret, Etgar. THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED
TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES. Translated By Miriam Shlesinger. New
Milford: The Toby Press, 204:49-51.
Keret, Etgar. “Siren” Translated by: Anthony Berries In: Keret, Etgar.
THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES. Translated By.
Ct, New Milford: The Toby Press, 204 pp. 57-60.
Keret, Etgar. “Shoes” translated by Marganit Weinberger-Rotman. In: Keret, Etgar. THE BUS DRIVER WHO WANTED TO BE GOD & OTHER STORIES. Translated By. Ct, New Milford: The Toby Press, 204: 41-43.
November 13, 2008
Orly Castel-Bloom “High Tide”(1989), translated by Dalya Bilu. In: THE
OXFORD BOOK OF HEBREW SHORT STORIES, edited by Glenda Abramson. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996: Pp.331-335.
November 18, 2008
Ravikovitz, Dahlia. (1965) “A Slight Delay” translated by Marganit
Weinberger-Rotman. In: RIBCAGE-ISRAELI WOMEN’S FICTION. Edited by Carol
Diament and Lilly Rattok, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of
America, 1994: 151-157.
November 20, 2008
Ravikovitz, Dahlia (1992) “An Unusual Autumn”, translated by Chana
Bloch. In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY
ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY
Press, 2000: 260-261
Ravikovitz, Dahlia “Hovering at a Low Altitude” (1987/1993), translated by Ariel Bloch and Chana Bloch. In: DREAMING THE ACTUAL-CONTEMPORARY FICTION AND POETRY BY ISRAELI WOMEN WRITERS. Edited by Miriyam Glazer. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2000: 262-264.
November 25 2008
Keret, Etgar. “The Summer of ’76” (1992), translated by Sondra
Silverston. In: THE GIRL ON THE FRIDGE. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2008: 169-171.
November 27, 2008
No class. Thanksgiving recess.
December 2, 4 2008
Liebrect, Savyon. “Apples from the Desert”. (1986) Translated by Barbara Harshav. In: RIBCAGE-ISRAELI WOMEN’S FICTION. Edited by Carol Diament and Lilly Rattok, Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, 1994: 71-78.
December 9, 11 2008
Summary and review: discussion of topics “across” texts.
Appendix 1: CJS Lectures and Screenings Fall 2008
Below are titles and descriptions of the Center for Jewish Studies lectures scheduled for this fall. These lectures will enrich your learning experience and expand your academic horizons beyond the classroom space.
Students are expected to attend at least one lecture and one film screening out of the events detailed in appendix 1 and are encouraged to attend as many as they can. Following the lecture and film screening that you have attended, you need to write a one page long critique, in which you explain what you liked about it, and how it is relevant to your own studies, interests, or personal experience. Attending at least two events, and your critical essays, which you have to submit in the following class, will credit you with 10% of the final grade for the course.
Fall 2008 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
UW Lectures Committee
“The Great Code: Greek Bible and the Humanities”
Professor Peter Gentry
Monday, September 22nd – 7:30 pm – Grainger Hall
Screening of “Chosen Towns: The Story of Jews in Wisconsin's
Small Communities”
Producer: Brad Lichtenstein
Tuesday, September 23rd - 7:30 pm - Memorial Union’s Play Circle
Screening of “Built on Scrap”
Producer: Jonathan Pollack
Wednesday, September 24th - 7 pm - Pyle Center
The Paul J. Schrag Lecture
"Biography, Fathers and Exile: German and Jewish Tensions and the
Writing of History"
Professor Steven E. Aschheim
Wednesday, October 22nd - 4 pm - Pyle Center
The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and
Law
An Interdisciplinary Conference
October 24th-26th - Pyle Center
The Harry and Marjorie Tobias Lecture
"The Melting Pot: A Centennial Look Back at Israel Zangwill's
Play"
Professor Meri-Jane Rochelson
Wednesday, November 12th - 4 pm - Pyle Center
For additional information, please call Anita at (608) 265-4763.
For more complete and up-to-date information,
please visit the Center’s new website at:
<jewishstudies.wisc.edu>
Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
UW Lectures Committee
“The Great Code: Greek Bible and the Humanities”
Professor Peter Gentry
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Monday, September 22nd - 7:30 pm - Grainger Hall, 975 University
Avenue
This lecture will discuss how in 1982, the eminent literary critic
Northrop Frye argued that the Bible was the "Great Code" - a foundation
for interpreting and understanding the literature of the Western world.
In a similar way it can be argued that the Greek Bible, in particular
the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, being the channel
through which the Bible reached Christianity, encodes data,
disciplines, and issues important and relevant to the humanities and in
many cases lying at their foundation.
Professor Gentry is a prominent scholar of the Septuagint. This is
the ancient Jewish translation of the Bible into Greek that became the
Bible of Christianity for many centuries and is still the form used by
the Orthodox Church.
This lecture is sponsored by University Lectures Committee, Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies with the support of the Ettinger Family Foundation, and the Religious Studies Program.
For more information please contact the
Department of Hebrew & Semitic Studies at 608-262-3204
or <hebrew@mailplus.wisc.edu>
Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
Screening of
“Chosen Towns: The Story of Jews in Wisconsin's Small Communities”
Tuesday, September 23rd - 7:30 pm - Memorial Union Play Circle, 800 Langdon Street
Executive Producers: Brad Lichtenstein and Alison Farmer
Producers: Susan Bence, Alicia Boll, Nicole Brown, Terry Caddell, Gary
Donaldson, Andrew Kazlauskas, Joe Sacco, and Meghan Stroebel, with
production help from Kati Conner
Edited by Nicole Brown with the help of Terry Caddell
Andrew Muchin, Director of the Wisconsin Small Jewish Communities
History Project,
a program of the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc.
And in collaboration with Wisconsin Public Television
A merchant considers the fate of his family-owned clothing store that has graced Viroqua’s downtown for 101 years. A son and his elderly father struggle to keep open the lone synagogue in Sheboygan, a city once called “Little Jerusalem” for its devout community of 1,000 Jews. Urban Jews reflect on how their small-town upbringings strongly influenced their life choices. Their stories and those of other Jews who molded and were molded by small-town Wisconsin are told in “Chosen Towns: The Story of Jews in Wisconsin’s Small Communities.” The hour-long film is a production of docUWM in partnership with the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc.
Central to the story is the age-old tension between the urge to express Jewish identity and the need to assimilate into mainstream life. Today’s small town Jews face challenges similar to those of the past 160 years: fledgling Jewish populations, the struggle to support Jewish institutions, the need to balance Jewish identity and mainstream participation. At the same time, many Jews refuse to give up the quality of life they’ve come to love in a small town, the economic opportunity and sense of security they have found and, in some cases, their mission to maintain Jewish life in their town. In every age, there are immigrant stories passed from generation to generation, but rarely do they travel beyond such intimate circles. “Chosen Towns” tells the Jewish small-town story in Wisconsin to a wide-ranging audience.
Presented by docUWM and the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc., "Chosen Towns" will air on Wisconsin Public TV and Milwaukee Public TV on Wednesday, October 15th at 7 pm. Please check your local listings for further details.
Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
Screening of
“Built on Scrap”
Producer: Jonathan Pollack
Wednesday, September 24th - 7 pm - Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street
This documentary reveals a history of Jewish entrepreneurs in the scrap-materials business (mostly scrap metals, but also paper and hides/skins) that focuses on two Jewish-owned yards in southern Wisconsin: the Heifetz yard, which operated on South Park Street in Madison from 1923 to 1994, and the Lorman yard, which operated in several locations in Fort Atkinson between 1913 and 1987. The film highlights a Jewish business niche that is largely forgotten, but that for most of the 20th century was a heavily Jewish business. (Length: 20 minutes)
Question and answer period will follow the screening, led by the
film’s producer, Jonathan Pollack and members of the Heifetz and
Lorman families.
This screening is co-sponsored by the Hillel Foundation of
UW-Madison.
Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
The Paul J. Schrag Lecture
“Biography, Fathers and Exile: German and Jewish Tensions and the Writing of History”
Professor Steven E. Aschheim
Wednesday, October 22nd - 4 pm - Pyle Center, 702 Langdon Street
This talk will examine the ways in which German and German-Jewish history were fashioned after the defeat of Nazism. It will examine the reasons (and tensions) behind the tendency of post-war German historians to emphasize social history, while German-Jewish emigres (such as George Mosse - the famed University of Wisconsin historian - Peter Gay, Walter Laqueur and Fritz Stern) constructed cultural histories to account for the same phenomena: the "special" course of German history, the rise of Nazism and the fate of German Jewry. We will examine how personal and generational experience gave rise to their historical narratives and assess both the strengths and limits of these influences.
Steven E. Aschheim holds the Vigevani Chair of European Studies and is the Director of the Franz Rosenzweig Research Centre for German Literature and Cultural History at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem where he has taught Cultural and Intellectual History in the Department of History since 1982. He has spent sabbaticals in Berkeley, the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton and in 2002-3 was the first Mosse Exchange Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. During September-October 2005 he taught at Columbia University as the Max Kade Visiting Scholar of German Studies. He has also taught at the University of Maryland, Reed College, the Free University Berlin and the Central European University in Budapest. He will teach at the University of Toronto in 0ctober 2008. He is married and has three children (and two grand-daughters!).
He is the author of Brothers and Strangers: The East European
Jew in German and German-Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923 (Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1982); The Nietzsche Legacy in
Germany, 1890-1990 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1992) which has been translated into German and Hebrew; Culture
and Catastrophe: German and Jewish Confrontations with National
Socialism and Other Crises (New York: New York University Press,
1996); In Times of Crisis: Essays on European Culture, Germans and
Jews (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001); Scholem,
Arendt, Klemperer: Intimate Chronicles in Turbulent Times (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2001), which has also appeared in Italian. He
is the editor of the conference volume, Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), also translated into
Hebrew. His new book, which appeared in 2007, is entitled Beyond
the Border: The German-Jewish Intellectual Legacy Abroad
(Princeton University Press).