The Non-Reading Reader: European Hebrew Literature at the Turn of the 20th Century

European Hebrew literature presents a challenge to the study of early-twentieth-century national literature. By the end of the nineteenth century, the reading of modern Hebrew in Europe was neither part of a religious practice, nor did it merely satisfy a purely aesthetic inclination. It mainly func...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zutot
Main Author: Netanʾel, Lilakh 1979- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2017
In: Zutot
Further subjects:B modern Hebrew literature Hebrew readership history of reading
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:European Hebrew literature presents a challenge to the study of early-twentieth-century national literature. By the end of the nineteenth century, the reading of modern Hebrew in Europe was neither part of a religious practice, nor did it merely satisfy a purely aesthetic inclination. It mainly functioned as an ideological means used by a minority of Jews to support the linguistic-national Jewish revival. However, some fundamental contradictions put into question the actual influence of this literature on the political sphere. This article asks a series of questions about this period in the history of Hebrew readership: How did the non-spoken Hebrew language come to produce popular Hebrew writings? How did this literature engage the common Jewish reader? In this article I propose a new consideration of Hebrew reading practices. I argue for the inclusion of the non-reading readers as important contributors to the constitution of the Jewish literary nation.
ISSN:1875-0214
Contains:In: Zutot
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/18750214-12341284