A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry

A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry
Author: Uriah Kfir
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2018-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004363599

A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry takes a ground-breaking approach to the relationships between centers of medieval Hebrew poetry and their implications regarding matters of poetics. It shows on the one hand how literary efforts by members of the Spanish school of secular poetry, from its zenith in the eleventh century to the thirteenth century, helped gradually shape its predominance. On the other hand, it presents thirteenth century Hebrew poets from Iraq, Egypt, Italy and Provence, and charts the different strategies of these “peripheral” authors, who had to cope with Iberian fame. The analysis, which draws on concepts from literary and cultural theories, provides close readings of many works in both the original Hebrew and, in most cases for the first time, an English translation. "Kfir’s book makes a strong case for the craft, vibrancy, and richness of Medieval Hebrew poetry as rooted in place. Highly recommended for scholars of medieval Hebrew poetry, poetry aficionados, and historians." - David B. Levy, Touro College, in: Association of Jewish LIbraries 8.4 (2018)

'His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror'

'His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror'
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2020-03-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004407545

'His Pen and Ink are a Powerful Mirror' is a volume of collected essays in honor of Ross Brann, written by his students and friends on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The essays engage with a diverse range of Andalusi and Mediterranean literature, art, and history. Each essay begins from the organic hybridity of Andalusi literary and cultural history as its point of departure, introduce new texts, ideas, and objects into the disciplinary conversation or radically reassesses well-known ones, and represent the theoretical, methodological, and material impacts Brann has had and continues to have on the study of the literature and culture of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in al-Andalus. Contributors include: Ali Humayn Akhtar, Esperanza Alfonso, Peter Cole, Jonathan Decter, Elisabeth Hollender, Uriah Kfir, S.J. Pearce, F.E. Peters, Arturo Prats, Cynthia Robinson, Tova Rosen, Aurora Salvatierra, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Jessica Streit, David Torollo.

Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature

Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature
Author: David A. Wacks
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2015-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253015766

The year 1492 has long divided the study of Sephardic culture into two distinct periods, before and after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. David A. Wacks examines the works of Sephardic writers from the 13th to the 16th centuries and shows that this literature was shaped by two interwoven experiences of diaspora: first from the Biblical homeland Zion and later from the ancestral hostland, Sefarad. Jewish in Spain and Spanish abroad, these writers negotiated Jewish, Spanish, and diasporic idioms to produce a uniquely Sephardic perspective. Wacks brings Diaspora Studies into dialogue with medieval and early modern Sephardic literature for the first time.

Around the Point

Around the Point
Author: Roman Katsman
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 705
Release: 2014-03-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1443857521

Around the Point is a unique collection that brings to readers the works of almost thirty scholars dealing with Jewish literature in various Jewish and non-Jewish languages, such as Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, Serbian, Polish, and Russian. Although this volume does not cover all the languages of Jewish letters, it is a significant endeavor in establishing the realm of multilingual international study of Jewish literature and culture. Among the questions under discussion, are the problems of the definition of Jewish identity and literature, literary history, language choice and diglossy, lingual and cultural influences, intertextuality, Holocaust literature, Kabbala and Hassidism, Jewish poetics, theatre and art, and the problems of the acceptance of literature.

The Many Faces of Early Modern Italian Jewry

The Many Faces of Early Modern Italian Jewry
Author: Martin Borýsek
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2024-07-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111049159

The Jewish population of early modern Italy was characterised by its inner diversity, which found its expression in the coexistence of various linguistic, cultural and liturgical traditions, as well as social and economic patterns. The contributions in this volume aim to explore crucial questions concerning the self-perception and identity of early modern Italian Jews from new perspectives and angles.

The Poet and the World

The Poet and the World
Author: Joachim Yeshaya
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2019-07-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110599236

A collection of seventeen essays on pre-modern Hebrew poetry in honor of Wout van Bekkum. The articles in this volume all seek to examine how the religious, cultural, and social context in which the poet functioned impacted on and is visible, either explicitly or more elliptically, in their poetical oeuvre. For this purposes a broad understanding of "world" has been accepted, including both the natural world and the constructed one (society, culture, language) as well as the spiritual and emotional world. History, a pillar of the man-made constructed world, has been used to determine the boundaries: from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and—in instances where the topic connects to older traditions—to Early Modern Judaism, i.e. pre-modern Hebrew (and Aramaic) poetry. The articles in this volume, in the breadth of their temporal and spatial range and their multiplicity of approaches and methodologies, highlight the richness of contemporary scholarship on Hebrew poetry. The volume invites the reader to engage with this astonishing body of poetry, while providing a glimpse into the world of the payṭanim, and the cultures and societies from which they drew their ininspiration and to which they made such important contributions.

Bridging Worlds

Bridging Worlds
Author: Dana W. Fishkin
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2023-06-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814350372

A radical revisitation of Immanuel of Rome’s celestial tour, Mahberet Ha-Tofet Ve-ha-‘Eden. Mahberot Immanuel is a collection of twenty-eight chapters in Hebrew of rhymed prose and poetry written by the poet and amateur philosopher Immanuel of Rome during an era of rapid political change in late medieval Italy. The final chapter, Mahberet Ha-Tofet Ve-ha-‘Eden(A Tale of Heaven and Hell), like Dante’s Commedia, depicts Immanuel’s visits to hell and heaven. Bridging Worlds focuses on the interrelation of Immanuel’s belletristic work and biblical exegesis to advance a comprehensive and original reading of this final chapter. By reading Immanuel’s philosophical commentaries and literary works together, Dana Fishkin demonstrates that Immanuel’s narrative made complex philosophical ideas about the soul’s quest for immortality accessible to an educated populace. Throughout this work, she explains the many ways Mahberet Ha-Tofet Ve-ha-‘Eden serves as a site of cultural negotiation and translation. Bridging Worlds broadens our understanding of the tensions inherent in the world of late medieval Jewish people who were deeply enmeshed in Italian culture and literature, negotiating two cultures whose values may have overlapped but also sometimes clashed. Fishkin puts forth a valuable and refreshing perspective alongside previously unknown sources to breathe new life into this extremely rich and culturally valuable medieval work.

Bilingual Europe

Bilingual Europe
Author: Jan Bloemendal
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2015-03-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004289631

Bilingual Europe makes clear that Latin played an important role in European culture for a much longer period than we thought and it explores how and why this was so.

The Evolution of al-Ḥarizi’s Taḥkemoni

The Evolution of al-Ḥarizi’s Taḥkemoni
Author: Michael Rand
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2018-07-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004373772

Michael Rand’s The Evolution of al-Ḥarizi’s Taḥkemoni investigates the stages whereby the text of al-Ḥarizi’s maqama collection as we currently know it, on the basis of manuscripts (and the editio princeps), came into being during al-Ḥarizi’s travels in the East over the course of approximately the last ten years of his life. The discussion is based on a close examination of the textual evidence, the investigation of a number of relevant literary motifs, and a comparison to al-Ḥarizi’s model, the Maqāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī. The book includes a catalogue of fragments of the Taḥkemoni in the Genizah and Firkovitch IIA collections, and some previously unpublished material that can reasonably be claimed to belong to a heretofore unattested version of the Taḥkemoni.

Sacred Trash

Sacred Trash
Author: Adina Hoffman
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-06-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 080521223X

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FINALIST WINNER OF THE 2012 AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S SOPHIE BRODY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN JEWISH LITERATURE Sacred Trash tells the remarkable story of the Cairo Geniza—a synagogue repository for worn-out texts that turned out to contain the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered. This tale of buried communal treasure weaves together unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter and the other modern heroes responsible for the collection’s rescue with explorations of the medieval documents themselves—letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting religious tracts, fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms. Presenting a pan­oramic view of almost a thousand years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole bring contemporary readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea Scrolls.” Part biography, part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed in the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption. (With black-and-white illustrations throughout.)