The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Comparative Literature ARCHETYPES AND AVATARS: A CASE STUDY OF THE CULTURAL VARIABLES OF MODERN JUDAIC DISCOURSE THROUGH THE SELECTED LITERARY WORKS OF A. B. YEHOSHUA, CHAIM POTOK, AND CHOCHANA BOUKHOBZA A Dissertation in Comparative Literature by Nathan P. Devir © 2010 Nathan P. Devir Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2010 The dissertation of Nathan P. Devir was reviewed and approved* by the following: Thomas O. Beebee Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and German Dissertation Advisor Co-Chair of Committee Daniel Walden Professor Emeritus of American Studies, English, and Comparative Literature Co-Chair of Committee Baruch Halpern Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies; Professor of Ancient History, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, and Religious Studies Kathryn Hume Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English Gila Safran Naveh Professor of Judaic Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati Special Member Caroline D. Eckhardt Head, Department of Comparative Literature; Director, School of Languages and Literatures *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT A defining characteristic of secular Jewish literatures since the Haskalah, or the movement toward “Jewish Enlightenment” that began around the end of the eighteenth century, is the reliance upon the archetypal aspects of the Judaic tradition, together with a propensity for intertextual pastiche and dialogue with the sacred texts. Indeed, from the revival of the Hebrew language at the end of the nineteenth century and all throughout the defining events of the last one hundred years, the trend of the textually sacrosanct appearing as a persistent motif in Judaic cultural production has only increased. What the discipline of literary studies has neglected to analyze, however, are the comparative aspects of such a rapport, with respect to the interpretive differences in the composition of modern Jewish fiction across geo-political, linguistic, and gender-based paradigms. To that end, this project presents a case study of the cultural variables of modern Judaic discourse through an archetypal analysis of selections from secular Modern Hebrew, Anglo-American, and Francophone Maghrebian Jewish fiction, focusing on the literary works of three major Jewish writers, all of whom were born in the last century. These writers are: the Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua (1936–); the American author Chaim Potok (1929–2002); and the Tunisian-born, French-Israeli author Chochana Boukhobza (1959–). These particular authors are relevant for a study of Judaic cultural variables because the literary works of all three have been characterized by their tendency to use religion, myth, and metanarratives to probe crises of identity and interaction in the modern Jewish paradigm. Included in this study are the analyses of Yehoshua’s short stories “Hamefaked haaharon” (“The Last Commander”) (1962) and iv “Bethilat kaiyts 1970” (“Early in the Summer of 1970”) (1972), as well as the analysis of his novel Gerushim meuharim (“A Late Divorce”) (1982). The literary works of Potok’s analyzed are the short story “The Trope Teacher” (2001) and the novels My Name Is Asher Lev (1972) and The Gift of Asher Lev (1990). The novel of Boukhobza’s explored in this study is Un été à Jérusalem (“A Summer in Jerusalem”) (1986). The central methodology used in this study has been taken from the discipline of “archetypal” post-Jungian psychology, which defines archetypes as recurrent themes, motifs, or figures, historically transmitted as patterns or models, which seem to follow a specific ethnic blueprint. This approach implies that many different interpretations of a people’s sub-cultural disposition may be found in a single archetype, depending on the specific sub-group involved. For example, the archetypes present in the common intertextual Judaic narratives or motifs that function as the building blocks for Yehoshua’s, Potok’s, and Boukhobza’s fiction include the Binding of Isaac; the revelation to Moses at Mt. Sinai; and the enigma of the “Shekhinah,” the feminine presence of the Divine. And yet, each author engages in a specific, exegetical midrash of these long-held stories based on his or her particular sub-cultural worldview. A careful examination of each writer’s response to the Judaic textual tradition demonstrates the ways in which the modern interpretation of foundational Judaic narratives is codetermined by several key environmental factors. These factors include: geo-political affiliation; degree of religious observance; attitudes regarding gender roles; and notions of ethnicity. Such factors create the conceptual frameworks through which Jewish writers from differing backgrounds reference, recast, re-envision, or subvert traditional and/or religious figures, themes, tropes, discourses, or narratives from the v intertextual reservoir of Judaic culture. The foundational texts in this reservoir are made up of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Talmud, the Kabbalah, and other celebrated, canonical works that are familiar to Jews the world over as symbolic points of reference. Jewish writers who choose to incorporate into their literary texts well-known elements from the continuum of Judaic textual history ultimately generate the meaning of this incorporation by way of the sub-cultural variables that define the nature of their respective, environmentally-based conceptual frameworks. In the same way that the differences in those frameworks illustrate the sub-cultural schisms that exist between modern Jewish sub-groups, such frameworks are also responsible for the varieties of aesthetic formulae chosen to depict those schisms in the literary text. The core contribution of this project for the field of literary studies is that it is the first to examine the comparative aspects of the cultural variables in the concept of “Jewishness” as this concept appears in the context of Jewish literatures. It also breaks new ground in that it offers explanations as to why the idea of “Jewish literature” as literature produced by groups of dissimilar Jews must undergo the same scholarly reckoning in literary studies as the idea of “Jewish communities” has in sociological and anthropological surveys. This research, therefore, represents the first step toward a broader attempt at troubling the notion of “Jewish literatures” across geo-political, linguistic, and gender-based paradigms. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...............................................................................................vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1 Chapter 2. HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND SUB-CULTURAL ANALYSIS.................47 Chapter 3. A. B. YEHOSHUA: THE AESTHETICS OF NATIONAL SUBVERSION...............................................................................................101 Chapter 4. CHAIM POTOK: FUSING TRADITION WITH MODERNITY………....191 Chapter 5. CHOCHANA BOUKHOBZA: TOWARD AN ENGENDERMENT OF THE SACRED………………………………………………………………….....258 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................334 WORKS CITED..............................................................................................................344 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many individuals have assisted in various ways in bringing this project to fruition. Following is a brief mention of those to whom I am especially indebted; I trust that the others will forgive me if I do not list their names here. First of all, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my dissertation director, Thomas Beebee, and to my co-director, Daniel Walden, for their many hours of reading and re-reading the initial drafts of this study, among others. I would also like to thank committee members Baruch Halpern and Kit Hume, whose insight was as plentiful as it was valuable. A special thanks also goes to Gila Naveh, my outside committee member, who was under no obligation to become involved with this project, and yet did so with much enthusiasm. Outside of the committee, I would like to thank Caroline Eckhardt and Sophia McClennen, whose encouragement and support were fundamental throughout the duration of my graduate career. I am also beholden to the superb staff of the Department of Comparative Literature for their kindness and good humor, and am proud to call JoElle DeVinney, Jamie Frazell, Irene Grassi, Sharon Laskowsky, Mona Muzzio, Bonnie Rossman, and Lynn Setzler my friends. I would also like to acknowledge, outside of the department, several sources whose generosity made certain aspects of this doctoral research possible. These include: Penn State’s Alumni Association, for conferring upon me their 2008 Dissertation Award; Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, for awarding me a Dissertation Support Grant from the RSGO, as well as an Education Abroad Grant for Arabic study in Morocco, both viii in 2006; and to the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry at Brandeis University, for granting me the Tauber Award for dissertation-related research in 2006. Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Preliminary Remarks: Background and Context In the twentieth century, world Jewry experienced a transformation on the cultural, geo-political, and demographic levels. It was the era in which Jewish emancipation and national aspirations reached their