Call and Response
S.Y. Agnon and Devorah Baron in Literary Dialogue
Wed / Jun 16, 23, 30, July 7 / 7:00–8:45 pm
Dr. Wendy Zierler
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S.Y. Agnon (1888–1970) and Devorah Baron (1887–1956) were direct contemporaries who distinguished themselves among their Hebrew literary peers for their frequent focus on the shtetl past and the seeming traditionalism and midrashic nature of their prose fiction. In this course, we will read and analyze several stories by Agnon and Baron and compare their poetics as well as their gendered treatments of canonical themes in Jewish literature including the abandoned and barren woman, prayer and redemption, relations between Jews and gentiles, and the legendary Jewish past. We will consider how these writers and their texts listen, learn, respond to, and critique one another.
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