Language:
Hebrew
Year of publication:
2014
Titel der Quelle:
תיאוריה וביקורת; במה ישראלית
Angaben zur Quelle:
43 (2014) 157-181
Keywords:
Bible. Drama
;
Bible In literature
;
Hebrew literature, Modern History and criticism 20th century
;
Zionism and literature
;
Urbanization in literature
;
Space perception in the Bible
Abstract:
“Why Should You Look upon the Shulamite?”: Theater, the Pastoral, and the Spatialization of the Song of Songs in Zionist CultureYair LipshitzAs an art form taking place in space, theater can offer spatial interpretations of a specific culture’s canonical texts. This paper examines the spatialization of the Song of Songs in several Hebrew texts from the first half of the twentieth century that place this biblical text in the theater. Through those modern texts it explores the role of the Song of Songs in the Zionist spatial imagination.In keeping with a long interpretive Western tradition that reads the Song of Songs as pastoral drama, this paper focuses on the tension between city and nature in the biblical text and its various performances in Zionist culture. Reading the Song of Songs as a pastoral requires us to view the city as a starting point for the idyllic descriptions of nature, descriptions that are subsequently reread as urban fantasies. However, the way that the Song of Songs is commonly used in Zionist culture denies the urban aspect of this biblical text and finds in it only a promise of liberation in the countryside – a promise that Zionism attempts to fulfill.The three Hebrew texts discussed in this paper – two plays and a literary utopia – maintain a complex dialogue with the pastoral tradition. Through it they propose a counter-reading of the common usage of the Song of Songs in Zionism: they emphasize the presence of the city, posit it in dramatic conflict with nature, and present its triumph over the landscapes of the countryside. They therefore display the anxious concern that Zionism’s pastoral project, and the place of the Song of Songs within this project, is doomed to failure. Thus, they expose the inherent dissonance at the heart of Zionism and in the promise of pastoral redemption it found in the Song of Songs.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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