Reading Israel, reading America : the politics of translation between Jews / Omri Asscher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Asher, ʻOmri, author.

Series:

Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.

Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Translating and interpreting--Political aspects.

Translating and interpreting.

Israeli literature--Translations into English--History and criticism.

Israeli literature.

American literature--Translations into Hebrew--History and criticism.

American literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 pages).

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Summary:

American and Israeli Jews have historically clashed over the contours of Jewish identity, and their experience of modern Jewish life has been radically different. As Philip Roth put it, they are the "heirs jointly of a drastically bifurcated legacy." But what happens when the encounter between American and Israeli Jewishness takes place in literary form—when Jewish American novels make aliyah, or when Israeli novels are imported for consumption by the diaspora? Reading Israel, Reading America explores the politics of translation as it shapes the understandings and misunderstandings of Israeli literature in the United States and American Jewish literature in Israel. Engaging in close readings of translations of iconic novels by the likes of Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Amos Oz, A. B. Yehoshua, and Yoram Kaniuk—in particular, the ideologically motivated omissions and additions in the translations, and the works' reception by reviewers and public intellectuals—Asscher decodes the literary encounter between Israeli and American Jews. These discrepancies demarcate an ongoing cultural dialogue around representations of violence, ethics, Zionism, diaspora, and the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews. Navigating the disputes between these "rival siblings" of the Jewish world, Asscher provocatively untangles the cultural relations between Israeli and American Jews.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Translating across the Homeland–Diaspora Divide

1. The Zionist Transformation

2. Ethical Conundrums

3. Israeli Jewishness for American Eyes

4. Jewish American Literature Makes Aliyah

5. “Judaism in Translation”

Conclusion. Entangled Self-Perceptions

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-5036-1094-2

OCLC:

1198930407