Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel

Joseph Lowin

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel presents studies of eight contemporary works of Israeli fiction by eight major Israeli novelists. It deals with a society where drama, lived in reality but also in the mind, is a central moving force. What this book shows is the ways these texts deal with the themes of creativity and the creation of a work of art and with the way art and artists are portrayed in a culture that is often perceived as being otherwise preoccupied. The book involves close and painstaking readings of these novels and travels along a broad spectrum of themes. It also shows how these texts engage in dialogue with texts of the Jewish tradition, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with each other. Two major points of the book are its emphasis on the work as literary art and the way the same themes often find their way into the varied works created by this literary generation. The book notes two tendencies among Israeli writers: that there is a great “urge to tell” their story and the story of Israel; and that to make clear not only what is “happening” in these novels but also what is “going on” in their works of art, the novelist take the leisurely route of “literary emerging”— slowly but surely leading the reader to see how art emerges from the most prosaic of events. Despite its easygoing tone, the book still claims to be a serious book, dealing with serious issues, both ethical and metaphysical. One of the cases this book endeavors to make is that one of the main goals of contemporary Israeli writers is to insert their works of art—via a midrashic mode of writing in which previous texts are constantly being re-written and being made modern—as links in the great chain of the Jewish textual tradition. These novels often refer back to biblical tales and to rabbinic ways of reading them. But they also demonstrate how the writers themselves and their books and are also a part of that tradition. Most of all, however, these writers are supremely aware that they are artists and that they have a particular responsibility to their art.

Lexington Books

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-0706-6 • Hardback • December 2016 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-0707-3 • eBook • December 2016 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Jewish, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Customs & Traditions, Social Science / Jewish Studies, Art / Subjects & Themes / Religious

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel presents studies of eight contemporary works of Israeli fiction by eight major Israeli novelists. It deals with a society where drama, lived in reality but also in the mind, is a central moving force. What this book shows is the ways these texts deal with the themes of creativity and the creation of a work of art and with the way art and artists are portrayed in a culture that is often perceived as being otherwise preoccupied. The book involves close and painstaking readings of these novels and travels along a broad spectrum of themes. It also shows how these texts engage in dialogue with texts of the Jewish tradition, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with each other. Two major points of the book are its emphasis on the work as literary art and the way the same themes often find their way into the varied works created by this literary generation. The book notes two tendencies among Israeli writers: that there is a great “urge to tell” their story and the story of Israel; and that to make clear not only what is “happening” in these novels but also what is “going on” in their works of art, the novelist take the leisurely route of “literary emerging”— slowly but surely leading the reader to see how art emerges from the most prosaic of events. Despite its easygoing tone, the book still claims to be a serious book, dealing with serious issues, both ethical and metaphysical. One of the cases this book endeavors to make is that one of the main goals of contemporary Israeli writers is to insert their works of art—via a midrashic mode of writing in which previous texts are constantly being re-written and being made modern—as links in the great chain of the Jewish textual tradition. These novels often refer back to biblical tales and to rabbinic ways of reading them. But they also demonstrate how the writers themselves and their books and are also a part of that tradition. Most of all, however, these writers are supremely aware that they are artists and that they have a particular responsibility to their art.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 194 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-0706-6 • Hardback • December 2016 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-4985-0707-3 • eBook • December 2016 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Jewish, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Customs & Traditions, Social Science / Jewish Studies, Art / Subjects & Themes / Religious

Author

Joseph Lowin is a retired professor of humanities living in New York City.

Table of Contents

1. Art versus Memory. Aharon Appelfeld. The Age of Wonders
2. Mount Moriah and the Labyrinth. A.B. Yehoshua. Mr. Mani
3. Odysseus in Zion. Meir Shalev. Esau
4. Re-Writing the Books on the Wall. Amos Oz. Panther in the Basement
5. A Portrait of the Artist as a Bar-Mitzvah Boy. David Grossman. The Zigzag Kid
6. Talking Pictures. Ronit Matalon. The One Facing Us
7. Art for the Sake of Zion. Aharon Megged. Mandrakes from the Holy Land
8. An Old/New Novel for an Old/New Land. Zeruya Shalev. The Remains of Love

Reviews

In this critical study, Joseph Lowin carefully examines eight examples of the contemporary Israeli novel, aiming to elucidate the images of art and artists in modern Israeli culture.... Lowin gives expert attention to the special, “arcane” literary devices displayed in these novels.... Lowin includes very helpful footnotes illuminating Mr. Mani and Yehoshua’s creative aims. The book’s very thorough index also aids readers’ understanding of the technical aspects of all eight novels.... In this thoughtful book, Joseph Lowin further traces such continuity by linking each of his chosen Israeli novels to “the great chain of the Jewish textual tradition.”
— Jewish Book Council

Through close readings of Israeli fiction (and with the same good humor Lowin exhibits in his column on Hebrew language in Hadassah Magazine), he reveals that, although these Israeli writers are, first and foremost, unique, they also see themselves as continuing the Hebrew textual tradition by structuring biblical characters, themes and patterns into their fiction.... Lowin’s analyses are weighted with literary concepts, but they go beyond academic scholarship. Deeply sensitive, his work is inspired by a love of Israeli fiction and its connection to the Jewish text tradition, an echo chamber of Jewish culture.
— Hadassah Magazine

In Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel, Joseph Lowin presents a vibrant profile of Israeli novelistic writing. . . . .In accessible, fluent prose, [it] guides readers through a literary journey, providing much needed context and drawing attention to sites that might have been overlooked otherwise.
— Hebrew Higher Education

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel [is] a signally rich, insightful and brilliantly analytical study. … I instantly saw how (if I dare to put it so) it was meant for me. Or, more generally, for readers like me, who depend on translation of contemporary Hebrew literature, but thereby lack a critical context. … [How] relieving it is that you’ve separated the novelists from their frequently contentious politics (Grossman, Oz). As you promise in your preface, you give us Aesthetic Israel. You also give us Aesthetic Lowin: your language has its own depth and power; like all superior criticism, your book is itself a work of literature.
— Cynthia Ozick, author of The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel is a highly original and beautifully written book. Each chapter provides a window into the work of a major Israeli novelist by way of an in-depth analysis of one of the novelist’s works. The first chapter [on Aharon Appelfeld’s The Age of Wonders] … is especially impressive. To my knowledge there is nothing quite like it in the extensive literature on this author. [Lowin] deals with complex issues in a lucid manner that I would characterize as brilliant. … Each chapter in the book is a jewel in its own way. … There is no other book that provides such brilliant companion analyses in one convenient place. … The author’s chapter on Megged is a tour de force.… As one who wrote on Megged, I can say without reservation that this is the best treatment anywhere of this challenging novel [Mandrakes from the Holy Land], and it is a tribute to the under-appreciated Aharon Megged. This book could easily serve as a Primer in Israeli criticism. Its major contribution lies in its highly disciplined and eloquent exposition of the way in which “slow reading” can bring out the best in individual and highly complex and highly worthwhile Israeli novels. …[The] book as a whole [is] a major contribution to the study of these and similar authors. There is no other book quite like this one. It will be useful for courses taught in both the original Hebrew and in translation. … For me it has been an edifying and uplifting experience preparing this report.
— Stanley Nash, Hebrew Union College

Joseph Lowin's close and brilliant readings of eight Israeli novels serves as a superb introduction to the country's greatest living writers, the issues that they grapple with, the language that they employ, and the textual tradition that they draw upon. A masterful guide to contemporary Israeli fiction in English.
— Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

A highly readable and informed introduction to Israeli literature through eight novel studies for the general reader. Joseph Lowin traces the authors' discoveries of art and explorations of the creative process in daily life. Each work is celebrated for its contribution to the continuing revival of Hebrew and its connection to the larger republic of letters.
— Nancy Berg, Washington University, St. Louis

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel

Joseph Lowin

Art and the Artist in the Contemporary Israeli Novel

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