Hebrew Literature in the 20th Century

Modern Hebrew literature and some of the most important works of the younger and contemporary generation of Israeli authors are interwoven with the German-speaking world in manifold ways. These close connections owe in part to the biographies and family histories of the authors and in part to the thematic level of their narratives, but also to literary traditions and forms or specific instances of translation, publication, and dissemination through which works of Hebrew literature develop a life of their in the German language.

This colloquium will explore and discuss this history of literary entanglements during the course of five evenings with guests who are themselves active in the most varied ways as mediators between German-language and Hebrew Israeli literature and culture. To this end, it will focus on incisive works – by S. J. Agnon (1888–1970), Lea Goldberg (1911–1970), and Tuvia Rübner (1924–2019) through to contemporary literature – and on the reconstruction of dissemination processes and encounters.

Program

Thursday, 16 May 2024, Dubnow Institute, Leipzig              
Giddon Ticotsky (Jerusalem)
Beyond the Canon and Within It: How To Say »Schwarze Milch« in Hebrew?
Free admission
 
Thursday, 6 June 2024, Literaturhaus Leipzig       
Thomas Sparr (Berlin) and Amir Eshel (Stanford)
Wortbrücken: Wortbrücken: Der deutsch-jüdische Dialog in Übersetzungen hebräischer Literatur
Admission: 7,-/5,- Euro
(free admission for students enrolled in the colloquium)
 
Thursday, 13 June 2024,Dubnow Institute, Leipzig            
Natasha Gordinsky (Haifa)
»What Remains?«: Rilke in post-war Poetry of Lea Goldberg and Yehuda Amichai
Free admission
 
Thursday, 20 June 2024, Literaturhaus Leipzig            
Efrat Gal-Ed (Düsseldorf)
Der fremden Schnitterin zu. Jehuda Amichai übersetzt Else Lasker-Schüler ins Hebräische
Admission: 7,-/5,- Euro
(free admission for students enrolled in the colloquium)

Thursday, 27 June 2024, Literaturhaus Leipzig  
Tomer Gardi (Berlin) and Sebastian Schirrmeister (Hamburg)
Sprachmischung in »Eine runde Sache« - Reading and Conversation
Admission: 7,-/5,- Euro
(free admission for students enrolled in the colloquium)