Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe

by Jonathan P. Decter

Overview

This stimulating and graceful book explores Iberian Jewish attitudes toward cultural transition during the 12th and 13th centuries, when growing intolerance toward Jews in Islamic al-Andalus and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista led to the relocation of Jews from Islamic to Christian domains. By engaging literary topics such as imagery, structure, voice, landscape, and geography, Jonathan P. Decter traces attitudes toward transition that range from tenacious longing for the Islamic past to comfort in the Christian environment. Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives.

Published with the generous support of the Koret Foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253349132
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	08/08/2007
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jonathan P. Decter is Assistant Professor and holds the Edmond J. Safra Chair in Sephardic Studies, Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1. Poetry
1. Space: Landscape and Transition
2. Form: Varieties of Lamentation and Estrangement
3. Imagery: The Protean Garden

Part 2. Narrative
4. Context: Imagining Hebrew Fiction between Arabic and European Sources
5. Structure: Literature in Transition
6. Voice: Maqama and Morality
7. Space: Landscape, Geography, and Transition

Conclusion: Out of the Garden

Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Tel Aviv University - Tova Rosen

Contextualizing Jewish-Hebrew culture in the Iberian (Islamo-Arabic and Christian-Latin-Romance) environment, Decter explores issues such as homeland and exile, identity, estrangement, nostalgia, cultural boundaries, hybridity. These issues maintain a vital dialogue with comtemporary literary criticism and cultural studies.

Cornell University - Ross Brann

[A] most welcome and unique contribution to medieval Hebrew literary studies. Its scholarship is sound, it offers excellent translations of many primary texts, and its prose is well written.

Indiana University - Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

[Decter] brings to bear a vast array of scholarship from the Arabic and Romance fields, as well as medieval Hebrew literature.

Editorial Reviews

"This book explores Iberian Jewish attitudes toward cultural transition during the 12th and 13th centuries, when growing intolerance toward Jews in Islamic al-Andalus and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista led to the relocation of Jews from Islamic to Christian domains. By engaging literary topics such as imagery, structure, voice, landscape, and geography, Jonathan P. Decter traces attitudes toward transition that range from tenacious longing for the Islamic past to comfort in the Christian environment. Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives."—Joseph Haberer, Book Editor, SHOFAR, Volume 27, Number 2, Fall 2008

"Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives.Volume 27, Number 2, Fall 2008"—Joseph Haberer, Book Editor

"Contextualizing Jewish-Hebrew culture in the Iberian (Islamo-Arabic and Christian-Latin-Romance) environment, Decter explores issues such as homeland and exile, identity, estrangement, nostalgia, cultural boundaries, hybridity. These issues maintain a vital dialogue with comtemporary literary criticism and cultural studies."—Tova Rosen, Tel Aviv University

"[A] most welcome and unique contribution to medieval Hebrew literary studies. Its scholarship is sound, it offers excellent translations of many primary texts, and its prose is well written."—Ross Brann, Cornell University

"[Decter] brings to bear a vast array of scholarship from the Arabic and Romance fields, as well as medieval Hebrew literature."—Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, Indiana University

From the Publisher

This book explores Iberian Jewish attitudes toward cultural transition during the 12th and 13th centuries, when growing intolerance toward Jews in Islamic al-Andalus and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista led to the relocation of Jews from Islamic to Christian domains. By engaging literary topics such as imagery, structure, voice, landscape, and geography, Jonathan P. Decter traces attitudes toward transition that range from tenacious longing for the Islamic past to comfort in the Christian environment. Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives.

SHOFAR - Joseph Haberer

This book explores Iberian Jewish attitudes toward cultural transition during the 12th and 13th centuries, when growing intolerance toward Jews in Islamic al-Andalus and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista led to the relocation of Jews from Islamic to Christian domains. By engaging literary topics such as imagery, structure, voice, landscape, and geography, Jonathan P. Decter traces attitudes toward transition that range from tenacious longing for the Islamic past to comfort in the Christian environment. Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives.

SHOFAR - Joseph Haberer]]>

"Contextualizing Jewish-Hebrew culture in the Iberian (Islamo-Arabic and Christian-Latin-Romance) environment, Decter explores issues such as homeland and exile, identity, estrangement, nostalgia, cultural boundaries, hybridity. These issues maintain a vital dialogue with comtemporary literary criticism and cultural studies." —Tova Rosen, Tel Aviv University

Tova Rosen

"[A] most welcome and unique contribution to medieval Hebrew literary studies. Its scholarship is sound, it offers excellent translations of many primary texts, and its prose is well written." —Ross Brann, Cornell University

Ross Brann

"[Decter] brings to bear a vast array of scholarship from the Arabic and Romance fields, as well as medieval Hebrew literature." —Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, Indiana University

Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych

This book explores Iberian Jewish attitudes toward cultural transition during the 12th and 13th centuries, when growing intolerance toward Jews in Islamic al-Andalus and the southward expansion of the Christian Reconquista led to the relocation of Jews from Islamic to Christian domains. By engaging literary topics such as imagery, structure, voice, landscape, and geography, Jonathan P. Decter traces attitudes toward transition that range from tenacious longing for the Islamic past to comfort in the Christian environment. Through comparison with Arabic and European vernacular literatures, Decter elucidates a medieval Hebrew poetics of estrangement and nostalgia, poetic responses to catastrophe, and the refraction of social issues in fictional narratives.Joseph Haberer, Book Editor, SHOFAR, Volume 27, Number 2, Fall 2008

— Joseph Haberer, Book Editor

Shofar