April 14, 2009
New book on S.Y. Agnon
Syracuse University Press will continue its series “Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music and Art” with the publication of “Language, Absence, Play,” a new book that takes a close reading of S.Y. Agnon's work.
Agnon, one of the foremost writers of modern Hebrew fiction, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966. The author of the new book, Yaniv Hagbi, is a professor at the University of Amsterdam who has previously written a novel, “The Yemenite Guide for the Writing of Legends.”
According to the release put out by the publisher, the book “explores Agnon’s theological and philosophical attitudes toward language, attitudes that to a large extent shaped his poetics and aesthetic values. Drawing on anthologies compiled by Agnon, among others, Hagbi examines his theoretical orientation and the ways he integrated into his poetics ideas about language that are rooted in Jewish theology. In doing so, Hagbi casts light on profound parallels between religiously inspired Jewish hermeneutics and the language-centered superstructuralist theories that have dominated academic discourse in the humanities since the mid–twentieth century.”
Seems a little too academic for my tastes but it might be a good read for those with a passion for Agnon. A Hebrew version of “Language, Absence, Play” came out in 2007.
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