Israeli literature
Israeli literature is
History
Hebrew writers
The foundations of modern Israel writing were laid by a group of literary pioneers from the
Among the earliest modern Hebrew writers was a small minority of writers who were born in Palestine. This cadre includes Yitzhaq Shami and Yehuda Burla , Sepharadi Jews whose families migrated to Palestine in the 19th and 18th centuries, respectively. The writing of this group stands out for its authentic depiction of the Arab and Jewish population of Palestine, told from the vantage point of those who grew up in its midst.
The most important writers of the first generation, S.Y. Agnon and Haim Hazaz, were deeply rooted in their European background, and served as links between the classical writers of the early decades of the Hebrew revival and the Hebrew writers in Palestine during the following generations.
For the next generation of writers, the center of focus was Palestine, even when they were writing about other parts of the world. Their framework was the period of aliyah and, very often, life in the kibbutz. Among the outstanding names are Uri Zvi Greenberg and Avraham Shlonsky, who found in Palestine the antidote to the rootlessness of the Diaspora.
The third generation of writers emerged around the time of the
The subsequent generation of the 1960s (
The following generation, writers who were born in the 1960s and 1970s and made their debut in the 1980s and 1990s, examined the basic questions of Jewish-Israeli existence by exposing the collective tensions in individual characters and fates.[2] Notable writers from this era include Etgar Keret and Sayed Kashua.
Yiddish writers
Apart from Hebrew writers, there is considerable creative productivity in Israel in other languages, notably in Yiddish. Before World War II, Warsaw, Moscow, and New York were the main centers of Yiddish activity. In Palestine there was still a certain hostility to the Yiddish language, which was felt as a challenge to the Hebrew revival. However, with World War II the whole picture changed. The European centers were liquidated by Hitler and Stalin, and the New York center declined. Immigration brought many of the leading Yiddish writers to Israel. Here the internal attitude relaxed and became friendly, in view of the Holocaust in Europe, on the one hand, and the secure position attained by Hebrew, on the other.
Yiddish writing in Israel can be marked by generations, similar to those in Hebrew literature. The first consisted of writers such as David Pinski and Sholem Asch, who passed their last years in Israel. The second generation, led by Abraham Sutzkever, started its career in Eastern Europe but continued in Israel. The third generation was centered on "Young Israel", a modernist group of poets and prose writers, most of whom are kibbutz members, whose work has been influenced by the avant-garde schools of English and French writing.
Yiddish writing in Israel is concentrated on the European Holocaust (the leading writer on this is
Arabic writers
The presence of Arabic-language literature in
Publication of books in Israel
By law, the
See also
- Hebrew Book Week
- List of Hebrew-language authors
- List of Hebrew-language poets
- List of Hebrew-language playwrights
- Jewish American literature
References
- ^ "My Jewish Learning – Judaism & Jewish Life".
- ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 9, p. 1001-1002
- ^ Encyclopaedia Judaica, vol. 9, p. 1003
- ^ Hebrew University of Jerusalem news Archived 2008-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Tal Polon: Israeli books: More Torah-related books than any other type Arutz 7, 05/06/18.
