Abraham Shlonsky : : An Introduction to His Poetry / / Ari Ofengenden.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Classics and Near East Studies 2000-2014 (EN)
• VerfasserIn: Ofengenden, Ari,
• Place / Publishing House: München ;, Wien : : De Gruyter Oldenbourg, , [2015]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)

The poet Abraham Shlonsky (1900–1973) can be regarded as the main architect of Jewish Modernism and Hebrew secular culture. In his crucial contribution, Ari Ofengenden disentangles Shlonsky’s work from Zionist readings and shows how his poetics redeem experiences of radical political displacement, exile and alienation through the use of a precise, chiseled yet playfully enigmatic style. Writing on immigrants, refugees and urban outcasts following the traumatic events of the First World War and the Civil War in Russia, his poetry constitutes a fusion of Modernist European poetry with biblical and rabbinic sources with the influences of Georg Trakl and Rimbaud. The book situates Shlonsky’s poetry in the context of his “rebellion” against the romantic poetry of C.N. Bialik and as an active participant in the European styles of Symbolism and Expressionism. The book is indispensable for understanding Modern Hebrew and Jewish culture, and more generally as an exemplar of today's more prevalent hybridizations of tradition and modernity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter One. The Collections Stam (Ordinarily) and B’ḥ̣efazi (In my Haste) -- Chapter Two. Agricultural Work, Heresy and Negation of Self in the Collection Gilboa -- Chapter Three. Loss of Belief and Madness in the Big City in the Collection Lekh Lekha (Go Forth) -- Chapter Four. The Process of Secularization in the Collection Metom (Perfection) -- Chapter Five. Avne’i Bohu: Karkhi’el (Stones of Void: Kharkhi’el) – the Desire for Absence and Loss of Self -- Chapter Six. “Shire’i hapa˜ad haribu’a” (Songs of Fear Squared): The Desire for the Uncanny or Absence as the Uncanny -- Chapter Seven. Absence as Transformational Narcissism in Avnei Gvil: Tsamrot b’sufah (Rough Stones: Treetops in the Storm) -- Chapter Eight. Sefer Hasulamot – Between Ideal and Real -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index of Persons -- Subject Index -- Index of Poems and Collections