150-453 The Literature of Destruction: Jewish Responses To Catastrophe

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Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Admission to the Combined Honours course in Jewish Studies.

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Subject Description

Advanced study of Jewish literary texts, classical, medieval and modern, with special concern for the theme of destruction and literary representations of and responses to catastrophe. Attention is also given to major topics in the critical tradition of reading Jewish texts. Contemporary holocaust literature forms a substantial component of the subject: e.g. Primo Levy, Elie Wiesel, David Grossman.

Assessment

6000 words of written work and class-papers.

Prescribed Texts

Additional texts to be recommended during the course.

• Appelfeld A, Bertha in Penueli and Uchmani. (eds.) Hebrew Short Stories, Tel-Aviv, Megiddo, 1965.
• Oz A, Touch the Water Touch the Wind. New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1973.
• Oz A, Crusade and Unto Death. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1975.
• Roskies D, Against the Apocalypse. Cambridge, Mass 1984.
• ., Facing the Holocaust. Selected Israeli Fiction.
• Ramras-Rauch G & Michman-Melkman J eds, The Jewish Publication Society. Philadelphia 1985.
• Mint A, Hurban. Columbia University Press N. Y.1984.
• Appelfeld A, Badenheim. 1939.