Understanding the Meaning of “Aspeset”: Hermeneutical Approaches, Reading Practices and the Departure from Germany in Two Lea Goldberg Novels
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Yaara Keren
Abstract
This essay describes the departure from Europe, arguably the theme that unites Lea Goldberg’s three novels, in terms of the German tradition of Hermeneutics. I explore the various hermeneutical approaches in two of the novels, Mikhtavim Minesi’a Meduma and Avedot, and connect their metafictional and metacritical debates to the circumstances of their composition, publication and reception. While Mikhtavim Minesi’a Meduma employs a humanistic and universalist Weltliteratur perspective in order to downplay the emotions of bitter rejection from a beloved cultural home, Avedot contends with hermeneutical and philological questions ranging from authenticity and interpretation to the mystery of artistic creation. Avedot’s plot revolves around the philologist-poet protagonist’s quest for his own pseudo-ancient text, but ultimately raises questions about the spiritual nature of the creative process and whether or not this spiritual baggage can be relayed to an external reader, in political circumstances that accentuate the poet’s sense of alienation. The two novels, with their unstable form, provided Goldberg an opportunity not only to contemplate aesthetic questions, but also to psychologically process the tearing away from the cultural and intellectual legacy of Europe and in particular that of Germany.
© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Hebrew Literature in Europe
- “God Who Brought us Close and Then Repented”: Hester Panim and Revelation in Avraham Ben-Yitzhak’s Writings
- Hebrew Dreams in the Berlin of Yesterday: German-Jewish Symbiosis Fantasy on the City’s Streets in Lifney Hamakom by Haim Be’er and Avedot by Lea Goldberg
- Understanding the Meaning of “Aspeset”: Hermeneutical Approaches, Reading Practices and the Departure from Germany in Two Lea Goldberg Novels
- New Beginnings?
- Hortulus 37, 1959: Translation as Collaboration in an Anthology of New Poetry from Israel
- Ethical Implications of German-Hebrew Homophony: Analyzing Dan Pagis’ “Sealed Railcar” Cycle
- Franz Rosenzweig’s and Paul Celan’s Early German Translations of Yehudah Halevi’s Hebrew Poems
- The Following Generations of Readers and Writers
- Die Muttersprache, die schweigt, und die Stiefmuttersprache, die erzählt. Zu Aharon Appelfelds Sprachpoetik zwischen Deutsch und Hebräisch
- On Translated Literature’s Intended Reader(s): The Case of Yoram Kaniuk’s The Last Berliner
- The Grammar of Displacement: Entwined Stories in Ruth Almog and Jenny Erpenbeck
- Exploring Israel/Palestine Through the Eyes of Writers: German-Language Authors and Undiscriminating Anthropological Glasses
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Hebrew Literature in Europe
- “God Who Brought us Close and Then Repented”: Hester Panim and Revelation in Avraham Ben-Yitzhak’s Writings
- Hebrew Dreams in the Berlin of Yesterday: German-Jewish Symbiosis Fantasy on the City’s Streets in Lifney Hamakom by Haim Be’er and Avedot by Lea Goldberg
- Understanding the Meaning of “Aspeset”: Hermeneutical Approaches, Reading Practices and the Departure from Germany in Two Lea Goldberg Novels
- New Beginnings?
- Hortulus 37, 1959: Translation as Collaboration in an Anthology of New Poetry from Israel
- Ethical Implications of German-Hebrew Homophony: Analyzing Dan Pagis’ “Sealed Railcar” Cycle
- Franz Rosenzweig’s and Paul Celan’s Early German Translations of Yehudah Halevi’s Hebrew Poems
- The Following Generations of Readers and Writers
- Die Muttersprache, die schweigt, und die Stiefmuttersprache, die erzählt. Zu Aharon Appelfelds Sprachpoetik zwischen Deutsch und Hebräisch
- On Translated Literature’s Intended Reader(s): The Case of Yoram Kaniuk’s The Last Berliner
- The Grammar of Displacement: Entwined Stories in Ruth Almog and Jenny Erpenbeck
- Exploring Israel/Palestine Through the Eyes of Writers: German-Language Authors and Undiscriminating Anthropological Glasses
