Dr. Baruch LINK LCM 113 Spring, 2011 Monday-Wednesday 14:45-16:00 Room 310

LOVE AND WAR IN MODERN HEBREW LITERATURE: This course will focus on two major motifs, love and war. These motifs will be taught in texts and movies that will depict them together and/or separately. We also will consider how these texts and movies contributed to the social and moral conversation in Israeli society.

We will concentrate on a close reading and analysis of the texts and movies. We will consider the context of the texts and movies in the historical development of Modern Hebrew Literature and Modern Israeli culture. In the process of our reading and study, we will introduce and use literary terms and concepts from literary criticism.

Objectives 1. Enrich understanding of the development of major cultural influences that molded the collective perspective of Modern Israeli culture. 2. Explore the influence of war on the Israeli collective and private psyche. 3. Improve critical thinking and writing skills.

We will study the literature and poetry of the following authors: 1. Yehuda Amichai 2. Chaim Gouri 3. Amir Gilboa 4. S. Yizhar 5. Benjamin Tammuz 6. Dahlia Ravikovitch 7. A. B. Yehoshua 8. Yehudit Hendel 9. 10. Yona Wallach

We will view the following movies: 1. “Kippur” 2. “Lemon Tree” 3. “Turn Left at the end of the World” 4. “My Michael” 5. “Yossi and Jagger” 6. “Summer Blues”

1 Author Text or Movie papers assigned and due Week Introduction to course 1

Yehuda Amichai A life in Poetry, 1948-1994 1 & 2

Chaim Gouri and Amir Poems (Handout), Paper Assigned 3 Gilboa

Movie “Kippur” 4 S. Yizhar “The Prisoner” (Robert Alter ed.), 4

Benjamin Tammuz “The Swimming Contest” (Glenda Abramson ed.) 5

Amos Oz My Michael, Paper due 5-6

Movie “My Michael” 7

Dahlia Ravikovitch Poems 7-8

Paper assigned 8 MIDTERM /Oral Examination-Part1 8 Movie Turn Left at the End of the World , 9

Yehudit Hendel “Apples in Honey” (Ribcage) Paper Due 9

A. B. Yehoshua “Facing the Forest” (Robert Alter ed.), 10

Movie “Yossi and Jagger” 10

A. B. Yehoshua The Lover 11

Oral Examination Part 2 12

Yona Wallach Poems 12

Amos Oz “The Way of the Wind” (Handout) 13

Movie “Lemon Tree”, Paper or Final assigned (TBD) 13

Movie “Summer Blues”, Course review 14 15 Course Review and summation

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BIBLIOIGRAPHY

1. Abramson, Glenda, ed. The Oxford Book of Hebrew short stories. 2. Amichai, Yehuda A Life in Poetry 1948-1994. 3. Yehoshua, A. B. The Lover. 4. Oz, Amos My Michael. 5. Alter, Robert ed. Modern Hebrew Literature. 6. Diament, Carol and Lily Rattok eds., Ribcage, Israeli Women’s Fiction. 7. Additional reading: Read the “history” subsection of the 20th century /modern day “” entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica. 8. Amichai, Yehuda Poems of and Love Poems. 9. Amichai, Yehuda More Love Poems. 10. Ravikovitch, Dalia The Window. 11. Wallach, Yona Wild Light.

Evaluation Attendance and preparation: 25% Papers and midterm: 40% Final (or paper): 35%

The students’ presence in class is mandatory. Regular participation in the class is expected from all students. The students will be asked to write two five page papers, participate in an oral midterm, and write an eight to ten page final paper. The papers will be due the fifth and ninth weeks of class, at the beginning of the class on Wednesday, and the midterm will be administered the eighth week. All of the papers must be complete and submitted by the due date and time announced in class.

The papers: The students will be evaluated based on showing their understanding and their ability to analyze the text. Students will be required to interpret a single text and compare-contrast that text to other texts by the same author and/or other authors. Students will begin to utilize the literary concepts and terms taught in class: narrator, point of view, structures of text and their meaning, and terms like metaphor and metonym. All paper requirements will be explained when the paper topics are announced.

3 The final will be an eight to ten-page paper, based on one of the novels covered in class. In addition, the students will have to read two scholarly articles concerning the chosen novel for that paper. Ample time will be devoted in class to explaining the final paper requirements.

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