Jewish literature
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Jewish literature includes works written by Jews on Jewish themes, literary works written in
Medieval Jewish literature
Fiction
Prominent examples of medieval Jewish fiction included:
- Sefer ha-Ma'asiyyot, by Nissim b. Jacob b. Nissim ibn Shahin of aggadiclegends.
- Sefer Sha'ashu'im, by Joseph Ibn Zabara (12th century), a story combining folktales, epigrams, and passages of philosophy and science.
- Ben ha-Melekh ve-ha-Nazir, by Abraham b. Samuel ha-Levi Ibn Ḥasdai, based on an Indian tale based on the life of Buddha.
- Meshal ha-Kadmoni, by Isaac ibn Sahula (13th century), combining aggadah with original stories
- Mishlei Shu'alim ("Fox Fables"), by Aesop's fables.
Poetry
Liturgical Jewish poetry (
Later Spanish, Provençal, and Italian poets wrote both religious and secular poems. Particularly prominent poets were
Little writing by Jewish women survives from this period. One Arabic stanza is attributed to the seventh-century Sarah of Yemen, who may have been Jewish; one stanza in Hebrew by the wife of Dunash ben Labrat survives from the tenth century; and three poems in Arabic attributed to the Andalusian woman Qasmuna survive from the twelfth.[2][3] The first female Jewish poet to write poetry in German was Rachel Akerman (1522–1544), who wrote a poem titled "Geheimniss des Hofes" (The Mystery of the Courts), in which she described the intrigues of courtiers.[4] A female Jewish poet writing in Yiddish during the same period was Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner, author of a poem about Simchat Torah in forty couplets.[5]
Most medieval Hebrew poetry was mono-rhymed with quantitative metre influenced by the style of Jewish poets from fallen Al-Andalus. One noted exception are two passages from Sefer Hakhmoni by Shabbethai Donnolo (sometimes classified as rhymed prose "saj" according to the prosodic classifications borrowed from Arabic tradition) because they are not quantitatively metered.[6]
Other medieval Jewish literature
Medieval Jewish literature also includes:
- Jewish philosophical literature
- mystical (Kabbalistic) literature
- musar literature, ethical literature dealing with virtues and vices
- Halakhicliterature
- Commentaries on the Bible
Modern Jewish literature
Modern Jews continued to write standard forms of
The modern era also saw the creation of what is generally known as "modern Jewish literature," discussed here. Modern Jewish literature emerged with the Hebrew literature of the Haskalah and broke with religious traditions about literature. Therefore, it can be distinguished from rabbinic literature which is distinctly religious in character.[7] Modern Jewish literature was a unique Jewish literature which often also contributed to the national literatures of many of the countries in which Jews lived.
Eighteenth-century Hebrew literature
It was with
Nineteenth-century Hebrew literature
(See also: Revival of the Hebrew language)
In
Hebrew writers in the Russian empire included: the poet Jacob Eichenbaum; the Haskalah leader
Early 20th century Hebrew literature
Hayim Nahman Bialik (1873–1934) was one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry and came to be recognized as Israel's national poet. Bialik contributed significantly to the revival of the Hebrew language. His influence is felt deeply in all subsequent Hebrew literature. Another prominent Hebrew poet of Bialik's era was Shaul Tchernichovsky (1875–1943), who is especially well known for his nature poetry and for his interest in the culture of ancient Greece.
Israeli literature
Among Israeli writers,
Yiddish literature
Modern Yiddish literature is generally dated to the publication in 1864 of Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh’s novel Dos kleyne mentshele (“The Little Person”). The most important of the early writers to follow Abramovitsh were Sholem Rabinovitsh, popularly known by his alter-ego, Sholem Aleichem, and I. L. Peretz. Later Yiddish writers of note include S.L. Shneiderman, Abraham Sutzkever, Isaac Bashevis Singer, who won the Nobel Prize in 1978, and Chaim Grade.
American Jewish literature
American Jewish literature written in English includes the works of Gertrude Stein, Henry Roth, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Alicia Ostriker, Chaim Potok, and Philip Roth. The poetry of Allen Ginsberg often touches on Jewish themes (notably the early autobiographical works such as Howl and Kaddish). Recent Jewish-American literature includes the writings of Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Joshua Cohen, Jonathan Safran Foer and Art Spiegelman.
German Jewish literature
Jewish authors who wrote in German and made outstanding contributions to world literature include the German poet Heinrich Heine and the Bohemian novelist Franz Kafka.
Other significant German-Jewish poets and essayists include Berthold Auerbach, Paul Celan, Else Lasker-Schüler, Ernst Lissauer, Jacob Raphael Fürstenthal, Siegfried Einstein, Karl Marx, Nelly Sachs, Karl Kraus, Egon Friedell, and Erich Mühsam.
German-Jewish novelists include Lion Feuchtwanger, Edgar Hilsenrath, Alfred Döblin, Arthur Schnitzler, Anna Seghers, Hermann Broch, Franz Werfel, Joseph Roth, Jakob Wassermann, and Stefan Zweig.
Russian-language Jewish literature
Ladino Literature
The primary forms of modern Ladino literature have been fables and folktales.[11] Ladino fables and folktales often have Jewish themes, with biblical figures and legendary characters, and many of them feature the folk character "Ejoha" (also "Joha"). In 2001, the Jewish Publication Society published the first English translation of Ladino folk tales, collected by Matilda Koén-Sarano, Folktales of Joha, Jewish Trickster: The Misadventures of the Guileful Sephardic Prankster.
Modern Ladino poets include
Judeo-Tat literature
A connoisseur of the Judeo-Tat folklore,
A number of poets of the 20th century created their works in the Judeo-Tat language, such as Sergey Izgiyayev, creates (Juhuri: Иму гъэлхэнд шолуминим) - "We are the defenders of the World" (1952), (Juhuri: Фикиргьой шогьир) - "Thoughts of the Poet" (1966), (Juhuri: Муьгьбет ве гьисмет) - "The fate and love" (1972) and a number of other works. Shimshun Safonov, in 1968, created a collection of poetry (Juhuri: Парза, ма‘ни ма) - "Fly, my verse." Poetess Zoya Semenduyeva has released a collection (Juhuri: Войгей дуьл) - "The Command of the Heart". In 2007, her book was published (Juhuri: Духдер эн дуь бебе) - "Daughter of two fathers".
References
- ^ a b c "Literature, Jewish". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ^ Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry, and Cheryl Tallan, 'Sarah of Yemen', in The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E. to 1900 C.E. (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2003), pp. 57-59.
- ^ The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, ed. and trans. by Peter Cole (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), pp. 27, 364.
- ^ "AKERMAN, RACHEL - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ^ Israel Zinberg, Old Yiddish Literature from Its Origins to the Haskalah Period (KTAV, 1975), p. 51ff.
- ISBN 9789004376700.
- ^ "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ^ a b "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ^ a b c "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW - JewishEncyclopedia.com". Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- ^ Neither and Both; anthology. Joshua Cohen. The Forward Arts & Culture; Pg. B2. July 6, 2007
- ^ "Ladino Literature". My Jewish Learning. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Richard Gottheil, N. Slouschz (1901–1906). "LITERATURE, MODERN HEBREW". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.