10246 Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua: Early Writings 1

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in Hebrew Literature

Prerequisites: none

Recommended: Fiction and Reality: Genres in the Israeli Short Story, Selected Hebrew Short Stories: Early Twentieth Century

Authors: Adia Mendelson-Maoz, Nurith Gertz

The course examines the early works of Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua. It discusses the ways in which writing patterns change, and the process of transition from one literary norm to another. In addition, it describes the transition from writing norms characteristic of the “Palmach Generation,” represented by Moshe Shamir’s work, He Walked in the Fields, to the new trends in writing characterized by the works of Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua in the 1960s and the 1970s.

The new version of this course combines the narrative of the original course that described and analyzed the ways of writing and the literary norms of the period, with additional voices that suggest new historical and theoretical perspectives. The later discussions of the works present subversive critical aspects, and link the early works of Oz and Yehoshua to their later works.

Topics: Change of generations in Israeli literature; Moshe Shamir, He Walked in the Fields; Amos Oz, Where the Jackals Howl (two stories), My Michael, “Late Love,” “Unto Death”; A. B. Yehoshua, “The Yatir Evening Express,” “Facing the Forests,” “The Continuing Silence of a Poet,” “Early in the Summer of 1970,” The Lover.

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1This is a new version of Israeli Prose in the Sixties: Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Amalia Kahana-Carmon. Students who took that course will not get additional credits for this one.