THE CLOVEN SOUL: THE ART OF THE NARRATIVE OF M.Y. BERDICHEWSKI BY ZILLA JANE GOODMAN DISSERTATION FOR MASTER OF ARTS DEGREE DEPARTMENT OF HEBREW STUDIES University of Cape Town UNT"r.:RSITY OF CAPE TOWN OCTOBER 1986 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town ABSTRACT Micha Yosef Berdichewski (1865 - 1921) is considered by many to be the most influential Jewish author of his generation. His literary activity encompassed both fiction and non-fiction. Berdichewski's fictional world has been termed "a spiritual organic unity" (Almagor 1968) inasmuch as his hero tends to reappear in many like-guises across the various stories and there is a great deal of repetition of themes, characters, motifs and even semantic elements throughout his work. The present work aims to show that the seeming uniformity in Berdichewski's writing is misleading. It postulates that the identity of feature that marks the Berdichewskian text is not productive of sameness, but rather that it promotes greater textual density through the adherence of variability within correlates. It purports that though Berdichewski's apparent stereotyping is due, at least in part, to an abiding concern with some central issues - and thus that his various narratives may be seen as the continuing working out of these concerns - these are never fully resolved but only interacted with from varying, quite disparate, perspectives. The study attempts to illustrate the variability in Berdichewski's narratives by providing a synchronic and a diachronic view of his literary output. It concentrates on two of his short novels, Mahanayim and Garei Rehov, which were written at an intervul of over twenty years. The synchronic analysis of Mahanayim seeks to elucidate intra-textual ii movements by examining some of the networks of association and dissonance both within and between the corresponding larger and smaller elements of the story. These include : The parallel sets of relationships; the use of correspondence and antithesis in the formulation of character; the discordances set up by word-repetition in changing contexts and through the fluctuations of extra-textual connotations; the effects of word-motifs across narrative progression and the inversion of repeated imagery. It also explores the mythological allusions by which Berdichewski tries to achieve psychological understanding and shows how their implications often subvert the stated claims of the narrative and impart a uniqueness to features that appear, at first reading, repetitious. The Oedipal myth in its Freudian-sexual interpretation, as well as in its extended Jungian-archetypal reading, is referred to in explication of the involved psychological aspect of Mahanayim and as illustration of its textual complexity. A diachronic dimension is introduced by the comparison of Mahanayim and Garei Rehov, which looks at the issues of narrative structure, the role of the narrator, narrative verisimilitude and narrative integrity. It further explores and compares the use of analogues in the two stories and considers the inter-textual thematic connections. These analyses reveal that the seeming uniformity in Berdichewski's writing effects a subtly highlighted variance which derives from the close linkages afforded by permutation within identity. It also shows that though there is a perceptible continuity in his work, Berdichewski's development as a writer is evident in the altered narrative form of the later story. The conclusion of this study is that though Berdichewski's fictional world may be iii termed "a spiritual organic unity" it is a unity which is dense with a constant wavering and flux. iv To my parents With thanks to my friends for their inspiration and love; to my supervisor Prof. I.A. Ben Yosef for his guidance; to Sue Giffard and Linda Hackner for their assistance in reading the text; to Aliza Solly for her careful insertion of the Hebrew text and to Avner Holtzman for his help with the bibliographical material. With grateful acknowledgement to the following institutions for their financial assistance which made this research possible: The Human Sciences Research Council; The Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and the University of Cape Town Research Committee. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Chapter I A Portrait in Dualism 7 1. Michael and Hedwig 21 2. Michael and Hedwig - Reuven and Lotte 23 3. Stasha and her Old Lover 26 Chapter II The Sexual Landscape : Purity and Impurity 28 II. 1. Correspondence and Antithesis 28 1. Between Stasha and Maria Yosefa 28 2. Between Stasha and Michael 29 3. Stasha and Hedwig 30 II. 2. Symbols, Motifs and Metaphors 42 1. Song 42 2. Swallowing 50 3. Defilement 54 4. Blood 72 5. Water 83 6. "llevyon" 107 7. Trees as Inverted Imagery 109 Chapter m Senex and Puer 111 1. The Oedipal Myth 111 2. To be a Son 133 vi Chapter IV "Shema" - "What If ••• " 141 Chapter V The Street that Was 147 Conclusion 184 Notes 188 Appendix 210 Bibliography 211 THE CLOVEN SOUL: Page l The Art of the Narrative of M. Y. Berdichewski INTRODUCTION Micha Yosef Berdichewski (1865 - 1921) is considered by many to be the most influential Jewish author of his generation. He was an extremely prolific writer whose literary enterprise encompassed both fiction and non­ fiction. Berdichewski's fictional world has been termed "a spiritual organic 1 unity" inasmuch as his hero tends to reappear in many like-guises across the various stories and there is a great deal of repetition of themes, characters, motifs and even semantic elements throughout his work. The present study attempts to expand on Almagor's thesis - which collates and assigns meanings to some of the common elements in Berdichewski's writing and go beyond it. It aims to show that Berdichewski' s stereotyping 1s, in large measure, illusory. It contends that although an abiding concern with some primary psychological processes and cultural issues may be seen to run through his work - and thus that his various narratives may be seen as the continuing working out of these concerns - their complexity is such that they are never fully resolved, but only interacted with from varying, quite disparate, perspectives. Furthermore, it asserts that a longitudinal survey of Berdichewski's literary output reveals a marked technical and conceptual development which efficaciously counters any possible charge of homogeneity. THE CLOVEN SOUL: Page 2 The Art of the Narrative of M. Y. Berdichewski The study concentrates on two of P,erdichewski's short novels, Mahanayim and Garei Rehov which were written at an interval of over twenty years. It analyzes Mahanayim, the earlier story, extensively, with the intention of emphasizing the intricacy of its linguistic and psychological weave and showing that what appears as repetition is expansion and not identical recurrence. It also examines Garei Rehov, both as an independent work and in its relationship to Mahanayim in an attempt to show the author's artistic progress over twenty years. It is hoped that these analyses will illustrate the variety and depth m Berdichewski's writing. The decision to limit the study to only two stories - Berdichewski wrote over one hundred and fifty fictional pieces - evolves from the assumption that this type of restriction will afford the concentrated focus needed to portray the prismatic, rather than monochromatic, function of the repetitive elements in Berdichewski's writing. The detailed cmalysis of Mahanayim strives, intra-textually, to explicate these effects by often tending to a close textual analysis which concentrates, at times, on microscopic elements and connections. It also analyzes the complex mythological allusions by which Berdichewski tries to achieve psychological understanding and shows how their implications often subvert the stated claims of the narrative, thereby imparting a uniqueness to f ea tu res that appear, at first reading, repetitious. In addition, it explores Berdichewski's use of correspondence and opposition in his methods of characterization, and especially in his presentation of relationships where analogy and antithesis have an important formative function. THE CLOVEN SOUL: Page 3 The Art of the Narrative of M. Y. Berdichewski Mahanayim was first published in 1899. Almagor notes that the end of the 1890s "comprised a new phase tn Berd ichewsk i's artistic develop- 2 ment" as tn this period he began "to consider not only the content and 3 purpose of his narratives, but their form and artistic structure as well". I. Bin Gorion sees it as "a revolutionary innovation in the awakening Hebrew literature of its time114 inasmuch as "the authors prior to Berdichewski tended to describe the connection between the two camps as a conflict of conscience, and the severing - as a result of that conflict, 5 and not as humankind's (inevitable) fate". Dan Miron defines Mahanayim 6 as a turning point in modern Hebrew fiction. According to Miron, the transition of Hebrew literature, as it moves into the twentieth century, may be perceived in this story which, together with its "twin Orva Parah .•. 7 laid the founclc1tion stones of modern Hebrew literature". From the above it may be seen that :'vlahanayim 1s of seminal importance, not only to Berdichewski's writing, but to the development of modern Hebrew literature at large. But it was not this consideration alone that led to its choice as the main object of this study. It was also chosen because of its grand psychological proportions and its mytho-psychological component. Mahanayim may, m some sense, be seen as a portrait of con­ sciousness in its quest for self-reali;;,:ation or, more accurately, as the tragedy of consciousness in its unsuccessful reaching for actualization.