COML359 - Sem Modern Hebrew Lit: Autobiography in Literature, Amichai

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) is arguably Israel’s national poet. Looking at his 1948-2000 covertly autobiographical corpus, however, reveals a complex individual who struggled with his identity. “I Want to Die in my Bed", a young Yehuda Amichai's anti-war poem, propelled a literary and ideological rebellion in Israel. Amichai did not only express generational sensibilities but was torn between the orthodox Judaism in which he was raised and his secular way of life, European traditions and a nascent Zionist culture, his German mother tongue and the adopted Hebrew language. This course is an in-depth study of the life and work of a literary giant and simultaneously a lesson in the methodology of “archaeological reading.” The course covers Amichai’s poetry, short stories, plays, archived letters, and segments from his novel, and musical renditions of his poetry, as well as recent scholarship. Texts and discussions in Hebrew.