Books by Elisa Carandina
Il volume intende proporre un nuovo modello narrativo e culturale definibile con il termine di «t... more Il volume intende proporre un nuovo modello narrativo e culturale definibile con il termine di «toledot orizzontali» e utilizzabile come filtro di lettura per una serie di pratiche letterarie e artistiche proprie della letteratura ebraica e dell’arte israeliana contemporanea. Questo modello integra l’iscrizione in un contesto culturale con la ricerca e creazione di una linea genealogica non più lineare, gerarchica e prescrittiva ma orizzontale e dunque fatta di incontri, del riconoscersi nelle storie degli altri e delle altre. Le toledot orizzontali si sviluppano dunque come una pratica di racconto del sé e dell’altro/a, in particolare, l’altro/a la cui storia è stata soppressa nella ricerca di simboli universali. Dei racconti orizzontali, dunque, che diventano storie e storia creando una famiglia in cui riconoscersi, accogliere e sentirsi accolti.
Per illustrare le forme diverse che queste toledot orizzontali possono assumere, sono stati scelti tre esempi. Il primo, attraverso una selezione di testi della poetessa Miriam Oren, introduce la nozione di incontro con l’altro/a come strumento per scoprire il sé, seguendo la linea cavareriana di una opacità del sé a se stesso, poi sviluppata in rapporto alla riscrittura della figura di Eva.
Il secondo affronta la nozione di incontro con la storia dell’altra come si esprime nella produzione poetica di Bracha Serri, attraverso l’uso dello pseudonimo e la definizione dell’io poetico in una pratica di resistenza ai modelli disponibili per il tramite dell’uso del corpo.
Il terzo e ultimo capitolo è dedicato all’artista israeliana Michal Heiman e sviluppa il tema della definizione del sé tramite l’altra come riflessione sui modelli interpretativi e visivi a disposizione per sottolinearne la prescrittività e sviluppare la possibilità di creare una nuova comunità a partire dall’ascolto delle voci individuali soppresse nell’uso di questi modelli.
Il percorso descritto attraverso queste tre voci e quelle che a loro volta queste creatrici evocano si sviluppa dunque per tappe di storie singole, individuali, che non intendono rappresentare nulla se non loro stesse e lo scandalo della loro unicità.
Articles by Elisa Carandina
Yehoshua, messa in scena di un processo identitario
Alias, 6 agosto, 2023
Le forme e la storia. Letterature dei mondi. Modelli, circuiti, comparazioni, XV, 1-2, pp. 439-450, 2022
The artistic production of several contemporary authors in the context of
Hebrew literature mani... more The artistic production of several contemporary authors in the context of
Hebrew literature manifests a privileged interest in the body and its expressive capacities. These literary works can be approached by two complementary perspectives: on the one hand as relationship with the body inhabited and perceived as a necessary condition for the creative act, on the other hand, as words becoming flesh. These two poles, body represented and body of the word, allow to outline a research path of a poetic discourse that tries to return to the body as a way to tell a story.
Among the many forms that this discourse takes in the contemporary Hebrew literature and Israeli art, the body as an inevitable subject around and through which to define one’s role as an artist is at the center of Hila Lahav’s poetic production. Her writing of the body as expressed particularly in the poetic collection ‘Ad ha-boqer (Until Morning), 2014, will be the occasion for a reflection on the relationship between ars poetica and practices of resistance to violence.
La produzione artistica di diverse autrici contemporanee di lingua ebraica manifesta un interesse privilegiato per il corpo e le sue capacità espressive. Il rapporto tra corpo e creazione artistica si sviluppa secondo due prospettive complementari: da un lato come relazione con il corpo abitato e percepito quale condizione necessaria per l’atto creativo, dall’altro come parola che si fa carne. Questi due poli, corpo rappresentato e corpo della parola, permettono di delineare un percorso di ricerca di un discorso poetico che tenta di fare ritorno al corpo come unico mezzo per raccontare una storia.
Tra le molteplici forme che questo discorso assume nella creazione artistica contemporanea, il corpo quale soggetto inevitabile attorno e attraverso il quale definire il proprio ruolo di autrice è al centro della produzione poetica di Hila Lahav. La sua scrittura del corpo come espressa in particolare nella raccolta poetica ‘Ad ha-boqer (Fino al mattino), 2014, sarà l’occasione per una riflessione sul rapporto tra ars poetica e pratiche di resistenza alla violenza.
Keith Moser - Karina Zelaya (eds)The Metaphor of The Monster, Bloomsbury Academic, New York-London, 2020
“Maybe Something I Never Wanted Will be Born:” Etgar Keret’s Monstrous Dream of Motherhood
Elisa... more “Maybe Something I Never Wanted Will be Born:” Etgar Keret’s Monstrous Dream of Motherhood
Elisa Carandina, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
The article deals with Etgar Keret’s short story Horsie, considered as a grotesque version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Keret’s text is first approached with respect to the dynamic of the circumvention of the maternal. Secondly, the notion of monster itself is discussed with the aim to explore how the non-hybrid nature of Keret’s monster. The non-hybridity is thus defined as the only possible feature of the monster both from a grotesque point of view and in a postmodern context where the “freak is the norm”.
in Dorothee Birke - Stella Butter (eds.), Comfort in Contemporary Culture.The Challenges of a Concept, Transcript, Bielefeld, pp. 65-84 , 2020
The chapter explores a new notion of comfort with respect to repetition and memory. This new appr... more The chapter explores a new notion of comfort with respect to repetition and memory. This new approach is based on a definition of comfort as an involuntary cultural memory. In the first sections, this new perspective about comfort is fully developed regarding its repetition dynamic with respect to both personal and cultural memory.
Focusing then on the literary implications of this definition, the dynamic of comfort defined as such is used in relation to narrative forms. More precisely, comfort as involuntary cultural memory is contextualized with reference to Lea Goldberg’s Diary leading to an exploration of comfort and the narrativization of the self. The “sort of strange beginning out of time” that defines Goldberg’s experience in the pages of her diary is also developed with reference to the poetic version of these days. Comfort, as involuntary cultural memory, describes then a personal and literary attempt to escape time, to bring back the possibility of a past and of a future that are both lost, to flee reality and time. However, reality and time keep coming back, and the only achieved flight is the one towards the self.
The article explores the biblical echo of the sacrifice, as a ritual and as a narrative, in Orly ... more The article explores the biblical echo of the sacrifice, as a ritual and as a narrative, in Orly Castel- Bloom’s Dolly city. The ritual element is analyzed in the opening scene of the novel, an uncanny sacrifice of a dead fish, and read according to Nancy Jay’s definition of sacrifice as “remedy for having been born of woman” with particular emphasis on the notions of care, control and killing. The narrative dimension of the sacrifice is approached with respect to the biblical motif of the barren woman, in general, and the Hannah and Samuel story in particular. What emerges is then a Derridean notion of responsibility as irresponsibility that enriches the reading of Castel-Bloom’s Dolly city.
Sigma, 3, 2019, 173-91, 2019
Abstract
The article deals with the uses of loss in Galit and Gilad Seliktar’s Farm 54. Focusing ... more Abstract
The article deals with the uses of loss in Galit and Gilad Seliktar’s Farm 54. Focusing especially on the preface of the graphic novel, the double creative process of the siblings Seliktar and its auto/biographical implications are addressed as a mourning, and more precisely, as a mourning that is the reversal of the act of creation. From this perspective, the loss of the other is the main dynamic allowing the definition and the representation of the self, making the other’s absence the necessary condition for the coming of age taking place on a narrative and on a creative level.
The absence of the other is also spatially necessary in order to tell his/her story. The spatial dimension of the graphic novel and its use of empty, abandoned, or deserted places is thus explored. This empty space is approached in comparison with Susan Meiselas’ A View of a Room in order to emphasize how also in Seliktar’s Farm 54 the emptiness of the rooms is used as a way to imagine the story of the other, the other who, by leaving, left only images of him/her .
Keywords Galit Seliktar, Gilad Seliktar, Farm 54, Israeli graphic novel, Susan Meiselas, A View of a Room, mourning, space and place, auto/biography.
Materia giudaica, 2019
The article deals with Venice as representation of Dan Pagis’ ars poetica, especially his antimim... more The article deals with Venice as representation of Dan Pagis’ ars poetica, especially his antimimetic approach. The poem devoted to the Italian city is contextualized in Pagis’ section Ganne nekar from Še‘on ha-ṣel (1959). In order to explore the notion of creativity as a failed attempt to grasp something, the author approaches the poem Ganne nekar and its use of Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Sonnets to Orpheus. This notion of ars poetica is then developed with respect not to the description of Venice but to the dynamic of the city as a paradox that is impossible to grasp.
Viviane Koua (dir.), Les Mythes Féminins et Leurs Avatars dans la Littérature et les Arts, L’Harmattan, Paris, 57-74, 2018
In her short story Hi Yosef, Nurit Zarhi rewrites the story of the biblical Joseph as a girl disg... more In her short story Hi Yosef, Nurit Zarhi rewrites the story of the biblical Joseph as a girl disguised by her mother Rachel as a boy. The article analyzes Rachel's role in the short story as a variation on the theme of the derek nashim, the way of women. More precisely its main focus is on the performative aspect in Butler's definition with particular emphasis on the new etymology given by Zarhi to Joseph's name. The new Joseph's etymology is then considered as part of the story of the mother as well as part the occupation of the name that, according to Butler, situates an individual within discourse.
Cosmo, 2018
The tension between referentiality and fictionality, or fictionalization, has historically been a... more The tension between referentiality and fictionality, or fictionalization, has historically been at the center of a debate concerning the function and, more importantly maybe, the reception, of three tools: the paratext, the photographical medium, and the literary genre of the graphic novel. In different contexts and from different points of view, these three elements have aroused reactions and questions about the definition of the boundaries between reality and fiction on one side, and renewed the longstanding debate over the ability of mimetic arts of being a truthful way of knowledge, on the other. By using the idea of framing as a way to define the borders between, at the same time, text and context, reality and fiction, what is seen and what is shown, the paper aims at analyzing the strategies employed in Rutu Modan’s graphic novel Ha-nekes (2013) in addressing these polarities. Some of the implications in the use of the notion of framing will be especially developed in relation to what Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey defined as “the ability of the graphic novel to work on the borderlines of first-person narrative, history-from-below, and oral history as well as to introduce fiction with historical meaning (and vice versa)” and Marianne Hirsch’s definition and use of “postmemory.”
E. Di Rocco, E. Spandri (a cura di), Mondi di fede e di invenzione. Intersezioni tra religione e letteratura, Roma, Edizioni Studium, 2018
The article deals with Rina Yerushalmi's Proyeqt ha-Tanak and, more precisely, with her interpret... more The article deals with Rina Yerushalmi's Proyeqt ha-Tanak and, more precisely, with her interpretation of Jephthah’s daughter sacrifice. Called Bat by Mieke Bal in her counter reading of the biblical episode that
denies her the status of a full character and being the protagonist of Alicia Ostriker’s libretto for a women’s ceremony, the Jephthah’s daughter character has been recently reinterpreted with respect to what has
historically being her role as a culture heroine. Rina Yerushalmi offers her contribution to these new interpretations of Bat’s sacrifice in the four repetitions of the biblical passage performed on stage by Iyar
Wolpe. The four repetitions and the different roles assumed in each of them by the performer create a new reading of the biblical episode that saves Bat from oblivion without making her escape her destiny.
The spatial dimension plays a unique role in modern Hebrew literature
mainly with regard to the r... more The spatial dimension plays a unique role in modern Hebrew literature
mainly with regard to the relation between identity constructions and space. In Zeruya Shalev’s novel Thera the quest for a place where it is possible to experiment the feeling of belonging takes place according to what Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi defines as the “ongoing dialectic between the temporal and the spatial, between the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘real’, the mimetic and the original, desire and fulfilment”. From this point of view, the article analyzes Shalev’s novel with respect to the function of the biblical model of the Exodus as a way to define anew the notion of belonging to a place and to the questioning of this model through the evidential paradigm.
Letterature del mondo oggi, Apr 20, 2014
As part of a project devoted to worldwide literatures in the Italian context, the article outline... more As part of a project devoted to worldwide literatures in the Italian context, the article outlines the Italian perspective on modern Hebrew literature through the history of its Italian translations, and of critical and public reactions to the literary production and authors.
Dahan-Kalev, Henriette (ed.). Be-sod Brakah. Yerushalayim: Karmel, 45-66 (ISBN: 9789655403343)., 2013
The chapter deals with the poetic and political project of Braha Seri with
particular focus on th... more The chapter deals with the poetic and political project of Braha Seri with
particular focus on the notion of maternal body as a space where, according to Julia Kristeva «s’affrontent ‘nature’ et ‘culture’». Through the maternal metaphor several aspects of Braha Seri’s works are analyzed, mainly the definition of the self and the dialogue with the tradition.
Filippi, Gian Giuseppe (ed.). Il concetto di uomo nelle società del Vicino Oriente e dell’Asia Meridionale. Venezia: Cafoscarina, 217-225 (ISBN: 9788875432836)., 2011
Edna Mazya’s Hitparṣut X is analyzed as an example of a metaphysical
detective story, a genre ch... more Edna Mazya’s Hitparṣut X is analyzed as an example of a metaphysical
detective story, a genre characterized by the emphasis on the epistemological dimension of the investigation. The chapter highlights how in Mazya’s novel the investigation, the quest for the self, and the search of a meaning lead to the discovery of the chaos as the norm.
The article deals with the use of the myth in the novel Dolly City by Orly
Castel-Bloom. More spe... more The article deals with the use of the myth in the novel Dolly City by Orly
Castel-Bloom. More specifically, it aims to deepen how this novel is built on
the idea of “repetition”, as a variation of the Pygmalion myth. Moreover, the
maternal use of the Pygmalion myth allows Castel-Bloom to approach the
theme of creation and procreation as cloning, as suggested by the golem shaped character of Son. Finally, this use of the myth is analyzed from the perspective of Alicia Ostriker’s “revisionist mythmaking”.
Schwartz, Yigal and Moscati Steindler, Gabriella (eds.). Tre generazioni di scrittori a confronto, Saggi sulla letteratura israeliana. Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica, 55-70 (ISBN: 9788863420883), 2009
Literary criticism has interpreted the return of the mother character as one of the most innovati... more Literary criticism has interpreted the return of the mother character as one of the most innovative elements in contemporary Hebrew literature. In this chapter, the novel Hitparṣut X by Edna Mazya is analyzed as a rewriting of the Clytemnestra myth. Focusing on Irigaray’s view of matricide as the foundation myth of culture and identity, particular emphasis is devoted to the unbearable narrative alternative between being a “proper” mother and die or being a “degenerate” mother and live.
The article deals with the use of the theme of disease in A.B. Yehoshua’s novel Molko. In particu... more The article deals with the use of the theme of disease in A.B. Yehoshua’s novel Molko. In particular it investigates the theme from a gender perspective through a comparison with the representation of the sickroom in Victorian literature.
The article deals with the cruelty of Dolly, the protagonist of Orly Castel-
Bloom’s novel Dolly ... more The article deals with the cruelty of Dolly, the protagonist of Orly Castel-
Bloom’s novel Dolly City, from a post-modern perspective. The author’s
analysis seeks to understand if the reaction elicited in the reader by Dolly’s
cruelty can be interpreted as part of the ethical aspect of the text. The more
general problem is to understand if in a post-modern text it is possible to
evoke an ethical dimension.
This article sets out to compare Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Orly Castel-Bloom’s Dolly City. ... more This article sets out to compare Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Orly Castel-Bloom’s Dolly City. In both novels, it is possible to identify the theme
of the monster’s creation as a metaphor of circumvention of the maternal.
The analysis shows that this theme is developed by both writers not only on the narrative level but also as a critical consideration of the anxieties about female authorship.
Uploads
Books by Elisa Carandina
Per illustrare le forme diverse che queste toledot orizzontali possono assumere, sono stati scelti tre esempi. Il primo, attraverso una selezione di testi della poetessa Miriam Oren, introduce la nozione di incontro con l’altro/a come strumento per scoprire il sé, seguendo la linea cavareriana di una opacità del sé a se stesso, poi sviluppata in rapporto alla riscrittura della figura di Eva.
Il secondo affronta la nozione di incontro con la storia dell’altra come si esprime nella produzione poetica di Bracha Serri, attraverso l’uso dello pseudonimo e la definizione dell’io poetico in una pratica di resistenza ai modelli disponibili per il tramite dell’uso del corpo.
Il terzo e ultimo capitolo è dedicato all’artista israeliana Michal Heiman e sviluppa il tema della definizione del sé tramite l’altra come riflessione sui modelli interpretativi e visivi a disposizione per sottolinearne la prescrittività e sviluppare la possibilità di creare una nuova comunità a partire dall’ascolto delle voci individuali soppresse nell’uso di questi modelli.
Il percorso descritto attraverso queste tre voci e quelle che a loro volta queste creatrici evocano si sviluppa dunque per tappe di storie singole, individuali, che non intendono rappresentare nulla se non loro stesse e lo scandalo della loro unicità.
Articles by Elisa Carandina
Hebrew literature manifests a privileged interest in the body and its expressive capacities. These literary works can be approached by two complementary perspectives: on the one hand as relationship with the body inhabited and perceived as a necessary condition for the creative act, on the other hand, as words becoming flesh. These two poles, body represented and body of the word, allow to outline a research path of a poetic discourse that tries to return to the body as a way to tell a story.
Among the many forms that this discourse takes in the contemporary Hebrew literature and Israeli art, the body as an inevitable subject around and through which to define one’s role as an artist is at the center of Hila Lahav’s poetic production. Her writing of the body as expressed particularly in the poetic collection ‘Ad ha-boqer (Until Morning), 2014, will be the occasion for a reflection on the relationship between ars poetica and practices of resistance to violence.
La produzione artistica di diverse autrici contemporanee di lingua ebraica manifesta un interesse privilegiato per il corpo e le sue capacità espressive. Il rapporto tra corpo e creazione artistica si sviluppa secondo due prospettive complementari: da un lato come relazione con il corpo abitato e percepito quale condizione necessaria per l’atto creativo, dall’altro come parola che si fa carne. Questi due poli, corpo rappresentato e corpo della parola, permettono di delineare un percorso di ricerca di un discorso poetico che tenta di fare ritorno al corpo come unico mezzo per raccontare una storia.
Tra le molteplici forme che questo discorso assume nella creazione artistica contemporanea, il corpo quale soggetto inevitabile attorno e attraverso il quale definire il proprio ruolo di autrice è al centro della produzione poetica di Hila Lahav. La sua scrittura del corpo come espressa in particolare nella raccolta poetica ‘Ad ha-boqer (Fino al mattino), 2014, sarà l’occasione per una riflessione sul rapporto tra ars poetica e pratiche di resistenza alla violenza.
Elisa Carandina, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
The article deals with Etgar Keret’s short story Horsie, considered as a grotesque version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Keret’s text is first approached with respect to the dynamic of the circumvention of the maternal. Secondly, the notion of monster itself is discussed with the aim to explore how the non-hybrid nature of Keret’s monster. The non-hybridity is thus defined as the only possible feature of the monster both from a grotesque point of view and in a postmodern context where the “freak is the norm”.
Focusing then on the literary implications of this definition, the dynamic of comfort defined as such is used in relation to narrative forms. More precisely, comfort as involuntary cultural memory is contextualized with reference to Lea Goldberg’s Diary leading to an exploration of comfort and the narrativization of the self. The “sort of strange beginning out of time” that defines Goldberg’s experience in the pages of her diary is also developed with reference to the poetic version of these days. Comfort, as involuntary cultural memory, describes then a personal and literary attempt to escape time, to bring back the possibility of a past and of a future that are both lost, to flee reality and time. However, reality and time keep coming back, and the only achieved flight is the one towards the self.
The article deals with the uses of loss in Galit and Gilad Seliktar’s Farm 54. Focusing especially on the preface of the graphic novel, the double creative process of the siblings Seliktar and its auto/biographical implications are addressed as a mourning, and more precisely, as a mourning that is the reversal of the act of creation. From this perspective, the loss of the other is the main dynamic allowing the definition and the representation of the self, making the other’s absence the necessary condition for the coming of age taking place on a narrative and on a creative level.
The absence of the other is also spatially necessary in order to tell his/her story. The spatial dimension of the graphic novel and its use of empty, abandoned, or deserted places is thus explored. This empty space is approached in comparison with Susan Meiselas’ A View of a Room in order to emphasize how also in Seliktar’s Farm 54 the emptiness of the rooms is used as a way to imagine the story of the other, the other who, by leaving, left only images of him/her .
Keywords Galit Seliktar, Gilad Seliktar, Farm 54, Israeli graphic novel, Susan Meiselas, A View of a Room, mourning, space and place, auto/biography.
denies her the status of a full character and being the protagonist of Alicia Ostriker’s libretto for a women’s ceremony, the Jephthah’s daughter character has been recently reinterpreted with respect to what has
historically being her role as a culture heroine. Rina Yerushalmi offers her contribution to these new interpretations of Bat’s sacrifice in the four repetitions of the biblical passage performed on stage by Iyar
Wolpe. The four repetitions and the different roles assumed in each of them by the performer create a new reading of the biblical episode that saves Bat from oblivion without making her escape her destiny.
mainly with regard to the relation between identity constructions and space. In Zeruya Shalev’s novel Thera the quest for a place where it is possible to experiment the feeling of belonging takes place according to what Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi defines as the “ongoing dialectic between the temporal and the spatial, between the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘real’, the mimetic and the original, desire and fulfilment”. From this point of view, the article analyzes Shalev’s novel with respect to the function of the biblical model of the Exodus as a way to define anew the notion of belonging to a place and to the questioning of this model through the evidential paradigm.
particular focus on the notion of maternal body as a space where, according to Julia Kristeva «s’affrontent ‘nature’ et ‘culture’». Through the maternal metaphor several aspects of Braha Seri’s works are analyzed, mainly the definition of the self and the dialogue with the tradition.
detective story, a genre characterized by the emphasis on the epistemological dimension of the investigation. The chapter highlights how in Mazya’s novel the investigation, the quest for the self, and the search of a meaning lead to the discovery of the chaos as the norm.
Castel-Bloom. More specifically, it aims to deepen how this novel is built on
the idea of “repetition”, as a variation of the Pygmalion myth. Moreover, the
maternal use of the Pygmalion myth allows Castel-Bloom to approach the
theme of creation and procreation as cloning, as suggested by the golem shaped character of Son. Finally, this use of the myth is analyzed from the perspective of Alicia Ostriker’s “revisionist mythmaking”.
Bloom’s novel Dolly City, from a post-modern perspective. The author’s
analysis seeks to understand if the reaction elicited in the reader by Dolly’s
cruelty can be interpreted as part of the ethical aspect of the text. The more
general problem is to understand if in a post-modern text it is possible to
evoke an ethical dimension.
of the monster’s creation as a metaphor of circumvention of the maternal.
The analysis shows that this theme is developed by both writers not only on the narrative level but also as a critical consideration of the anxieties about female authorship.
Per illustrare le forme diverse che queste toledot orizzontali possono assumere, sono stati scelti tre esempi. Il primo, attraverso una selezione di testi della poetessa Miriam Oren, introduce la nozione di incontro con l’altro/a come strumento per scoprire il sé, seguendo la linea cavareriana di una opacità del sé a se stesso, poi sviluppata in rapporto alla riscrittura della figura di Eva.
Il secondo affronta la nozione di incontro con la storia dell’altra come si esprime nella produzione poetica di Bracha Serri, attraverso l’uso dello pseudonimo e la definizione dell’io poetico in una pratica di resistenza ai modelli disponibili per il tramite dell’uso del corpo.
Il terzo e ultimo capitolo è dedicato all’artista israeliana Michal Heiman e sviluppa il tema della definizione del sé tramite l’altra come riflessione sui modelli interpretativi e visivi a disposizione per sottolinearne la prescrittività e sviluppare la possibilità di creare una nuova comunità a partire dall’ascolto delle voci individuali soppresse nell’uso di questi modelli.
Il percorso descritto attraverso queste tre voci e quelle che a loro volta queste creatrici evocano si sviluppa dunque per tappe di storie singole, individuali, che non intendono rappresentare nulla se non loro stesse e lo scandalo della loro unicità.
Hebrew literature manifests a privileged interest in the body and its expressive capacities. These literary works can be approached by two complementary perspectives: on the one hand as relationship with the body inhabited and perceived as a necessary condition for the creative act, on the other hand, as words becoming flesh. These two poles, body represented and body of the word, allow to outline a research path of a poetic discourse that tries to return to the body as a way to tell a story.
Among the many forms that this discourse takes in the contemporary Hebrew literature and Israeli art, the body as an inevitable subject around and through which to define one’s role as an artist is at the center of Hila Lahav’s poetic production. Her writing of the body as expressed particularly in the poetic collection ‘Ad ha-boqer (Until Morning), 2014, will be the occasion for a reflection on the relationship between ars poetica and practices of resistance to violence.
La produzione artistica di diverse autrici contemporanee di lingua ebraica manifesta un interesse privilegiato per il corpo e le sue capacità espressive. Il rapporto tra corpo e creazione artistica si sviluppa secondo due prospettive complementari: da un lato come relazione con il corpo abitato e percepito quale condizione necessaria per l’atto creativo, dall’altro come parola che si fa carne. Questi due poli, corpo rappresentato e corpo della parola, permettono di delineare un percorso di ricerca di un discorso poetico che tenta di fare ritorno al corpo come unico mezzo per raccontare una storia.
Tra le molteplici forme che questo discorso assume nella creazione artistica contemporanea, il corpo quale soggetto inevitabile attorno e attraverso il quale definire il proprio ruolo di autrice è al centro della produzione poetica di Hila Lahav. La sua scrittura del corpo come espressa in particolare nella raccolta poetica ‘Ad ha-boqer (Fino al mattino), 2014, sarà l’occasione per una riflessione sul rapporto tra ars poetica e pratiche di resistenza alla violenza.
Elisa Carandina, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris
The article deals with Etgar Keret’s short story Horsie, considered as a grotesque version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Keret’s text is first approached with respect to the dynamic of the circumvention of the maternal. Secondly, the notion of monster itself is discussed with the aim to explore how the non-hybrid nature of Keret’s monster. The non-hybridity is thus defined as the only possible feature of the monster both from a grotesque point of view and in a postmodern context where the “freak is the norm”.
Focusing then on the literary implications of this definition, the dynamic of comfort defined as such is used in relation to narrative forms. More precisely, comfort as involuntary cultural memory is contextualized with reference to Lea Goldberg’s Diary leading to an exploration of comfort and the narrativization of the self. The “sort of strange beginning out of time” that defines Goldberg’s experience in the pages of her diary is also developed with reference to the poetic version of these days. Comfort, as involuntary cultural memory, describes then a personal and literary attempt to escape time, to bring back the possibility of a past and of a future that are both lost, to flee reality and time. However, reality and time keep coming back, and the only achieved flight is the one towards the self.
The article deals with the uses of loss in Galit and Gilad Seliktar’s Farm 54. Focusing especially on the preface of the graphic novel, the double creative process of the siblings Seliktar and its auto/biographical implications are addressed as a mourning, and more precisely, as a mourning that is the reversal of the act of creation. From this perspective, the loss of the other is the main dynamic allowing the definition and the representation of the self, making the other’s absence the necessary condition for the coming of age taking place on a narrative and on a creative level.
The absence of the other is also spatially necessary in order to tell his/her story. The spatial dimension of the graphic novel and its use of empty, abandoned, or deserted places is thus explored. This empty space is approached in comparison with Susan Meiselas’ A View of a Room in order to emphasize how also in Seliktar’s Farm 54 the emptiness of the rooms is used as a way to imagine the story of the other, the other who, by leaving, left only images of him/her .
Keywords Galit Seliktar, Gilad Seliktar, Farm 54, Israeli graphic novel, Susan Meiselas, A View of a Room, mourning, space and place, auto/biography.
denies her the status of a full character and being the protagonist of Alicia Ostriker’s libretto for a women’s ceremony, the Jephthah’s daughter character has been recently reinterpreted with respect to what has
historically being her role as a culture heroine. Rina Yerushalmi offers her contribution to these new interpretations of Bat’s sacrifice in the four repetitions of the biblical passage performed on stage by Iyar
Wolpe. The four repetitions and the different roles assumed in each of them by the performer create a new reading of the biblical episode that saves Bat from oblivion without making her escape her destiny.
mainly with regard to the relation between identity constructions and space. In Zeruya Shalev’s novel Thera the quest for a place where it is possible to experiment the feeling of belonging takes place according to what Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi defines as the “ongoing dialectic between the temporal and the spatial, between the ‘imaginary’ and the ‘real’, the mimetic and the original, desire and fulfilment”. From this point of view, the article analyzes Shalev’s novel with respect to the function of the biblical model of the Exodus as a way to define anew the notion of belonging to a place and to the questioning of this model through the evidential paradigm.
particular focus on the notion of maternal body as a space where, according to Julia Kristeva «s’affrontent ‘nature’ et ‘culture’». Through the maternal metaphor several aspects of Braha Seri’s works are analyzed, mainly the definition of the self and the dialogue with the tradition.
detective story, a genre characterized by the emphasis on the epistemological dimension of the investigation. The chapter highlights how in Mazya’s novel the investigation, the quest for the self, and the search of a meaning lead to the discovery of the chaos as the norm.
Castel-Bloom. More specifically, it aims to deepen how this novel is built on
the idea of “repetition”, as a variation of the Pygmalion myth. Moreover, the
maternal use of the Pygmalion myth allows Castel-Bloom to approach the
theme of creation and procreation as cloning, as suggested by the golem shaped character of Son. Finally, this use of the myth is analyzed from the perspective of Alicia Ostriker’s “revisionist mythmaking”.
Bloom’s novel Dolly City, from a post-modern perspective. The author’s
analysis seeks to understand if the reaction elicited in the reader by Dolly’s
cruelty can be interpreted as part of the ethical aspect of the text. The more
general problem is to understand if in a post-modern text it is possible to
evoke an ethical dimension.
of the monster’s creation as a metaphor of circumvention of the maternal.
The analysis shows that this theme is developed by both writers not only on the narrative level but also as a critical consideration of the anxieties about female authorship.
‘inyanim. These poems could be read as a starting point of a journey through
different levels of definition of the self – psychological, sexual, poetic, and
linguistic. In particular, the analysis is focused on the relationship between
the image of the bird and the definition of the self, as a negative incarnation
of the poetic inspiration in Yona Wallach’s poems.
Maternal Sacrifice in Jewish Culture: Rethinking Sacrifice from a Maternal Perspective in Religion, Art, and Culture
Conférence de Elisa CARANDINA - Séminaire de Master INALCO - Musée du Quai Branly 2018.Au nom de la mère : performance et performativité dans la nouvelle « Hi Yosef » de Nurit Zarhi.
2018-02-16