Nitza Ben-Dov
Encyclopedia
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
at the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
.
Biography
Nitza Ben-Dov was born in Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
to parents who were Holocaust survivors. Her father, Dov (Bernard) Fruchtman, was a teacher of literature and wrote a series of research studies on the oeuvre of S.Y. Agnon. Ben-Dov completed her secondary studies at the New High School (Tichon Hadash) in Tel Aviv in 1968. She served in the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
Defense Forces (1968-1970) in the Nahal Brigade, at Nahal Golan.
Ben-Dov studied Hebrew Literature
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews...
and Biblical Studies
Biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts. For Christianity, the Bible traditionally comprises the New Testament and Old Testament, which together are sometimes called the "Scriptures." Judaism recognizes as scripture only the Hebrew Bible, also known as...
at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1970 to 1973 and received a teaching certificate in 1974. In 1974-1983, she did a Masters degree and doctorate at the University of California in Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation was on dreams and psychology in the work of Agnon and Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
. She was an assistant professor at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
from 1986 to 1989.
In 1989, she began to teach Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa, becoming a full professor in 1999. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of Haifa University Press/Zmora-Bitan (1996-2000) and as chair of the Academic TV channel (2001-2005).
Ben-Dov is married to Yossi Ben Dov, and has three children.
Research
Ben-Dov has published books, articles, and essays on S. Y. Agnon, Abraham B. Yehoshua, Amos OzAmos Oz
Amos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
, S. Yizhar
S. Yizhar
Yizhar Smilansky , better known by his pen name S. Yizhar , was an Israeli writer and a great innovator in modern Hebrew literature.His pen name was given to him by the poet and editor Yitzhak Lamdan, when in 1938 he published Yizhar's first story Ephraim Goes Back to Alfalfa in his literary...
, Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet. Amichai is considered by many, both in Israel and internationally, as Israel's greatest modern poet. He was also one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew....
, Yehoshua Kenaz
Yehoshua Kenaz
-Biography:Glass was born in Petah Tikva, in the British Mandate of Palestine, in 1937. During the Second World War, his father worked for the British Army, and for a while the family moved to Haifa. He learned to play the violin. His brother Hilik was born when he was thirteen. He was drafted to...
, Yehudit Handel, Haim Be'er, Sami Michael
Sami Michael
Sami Michael is an Israeli author. Since 2001, Michael has been the President of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel .Michael was among the first in Israel to call for the creation of an independent Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel. In his novels Michael writes about the...
, Zeruya Shalev
Zeruya Shalev
Zeruya Shalev is a bestselling Israeli author.Zeruya Shalev was born on Kibbutz Kinneret. She has an MA in Bible studies and works as a literary editor at Keshet publishing house...
, Yehudit Rotem, and Dahlia Ravikovitch
Dahlia Ravikovitch
-Biography:Ravikovitch was born in Ramat Gan on November 27, 1936. She learned to read and write at the age of three. Her father, Levi, was a Russian-born Jewish engineer who arrived in the British Mandate of Palestine from China. Her mother, Michal, was a teacher who came from a religious...
. Her research combines structuralist, feminist, psychoanalytical, and biographical elements in the work of these authors, along with intra-textual and inter-textual scrutiny.
Her book Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S.Y Agnon, published in 1993, revealed the possibility of analyzing Agnon's work (characterized by "the art of indirection", a term coined by Ben-Dov) even when translated into English. Ben-Dov has introduced Agnon to scholars of literature outside Israel and proved that it is possible to analyze word by word, through close reading, the unique nature of Agnon's work. Although the nuanced relations of the 'latent' and the 'uncovered' layers are attached through the essence of the Hebrew language, Ben-Dov illustrates that the greatness of a writer must withstand translation. The book surveys the methods, themes, and materials in Agnon's art, and deals extensively with dreams and their interpretation. It presents intersections of meaning in Agnon's writings, in which various layers are brought to light: psychoanalytical and cultural; a discussion is conducted on Biblical infrastructures, which the English reader may find in the translations of the works, in contrast to the Talmudic infrastructures.
The Hebrew book Unhappy/unapproved Loves: Erotic Frustration, Art and Death in the Work of Agnon (1997) enlarges the discussion of the Agnonian corpus and contains psychoanalytical discussions in the spirit of Freud and Jung
Jung
Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.Jung may also refer to:* Jung * JUNG, Java Universal Network/Graph Framework-See also:...
; along with these are inter-textual discussions, both literary – as to the affinities between Agnon
Agnon
Agnon was an ancient Greek rhetorician, who wrote a work against rhetoric, which Quintilian calls "Rhetorices accusatio." Some modern scholars have considered this Agnon to be the same man as the demagogue Agnonides, the contemporary of Phocion, as the latter is in some manuscripts of Cornelius...
and Mann
Mann
Mann may refer to:* Isle of Man, known as "Mann" as an alternative shorter name* Mann , a Nazi paramilitary rank* Mannaz, the Futhorc m-rune* Mann Theatres, a theatre chain corporation* Mann , a Norwegian magazine...
, Kafka, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, and Flaubert – and artistic-anthropological, on the affinity of the writings to the works of Rembrandt and Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss symbolist painter.-Life and art:He was born at Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin , was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk trade. His mother, Ursula Lippe, was a native of the same city...
. The combination of methods constructs an autonomous cultural interpretation, which deciphers the Agnonian character, as well as the society out of which it arises. Common to the corpus under consideration is the theme of unfulfilled love and frustration that this invites. In this book Ben-Dov holds a dialogue with Agnon
Agnon
Agnon was an ancient Greek rhetorician, who wrote a work against rhetoric, which Quintilian calls "Rhetorices accusatio." Some modern scholars have considered this Agnon to be the same man as the demagogue Agnonides, the contemporary of Phocion, as the latter is in some manuscripts of Cornelius...
scholars and critics, and offers an original interpretation of his writing.
Her Hebrew book And It Is Your Praise: Studies in the Writings of S. Y. Agnon, A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz (2006) concerns particular, intra-textual research, mapping repetitive primary themes and literary formats in Agnon
Agnon
Agnon was an ancient Greek rhetorician, who wrote a work against rhetoric, which Quintilian calls "Rhetorices accusatio." Some modern scholars have considered this Agnon to be the same man as the demagogue Agnonides, the contemporary of Phocion, as the latter is in some manuscripts of Cornelius...
, Yehoshua
Yehoshua
Yehoshua may refer to:* Yehoshua, the Hebrew of Joshua and Jesus* Book of Joshua , a book of the Bible* Yehoshua , a rare Hebrew surname* Joshua , a rare Hebrew given name...
, and Oz
Amos Oz
Amos Oz is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. He is also a professor of literature at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva....
. It also conducts inter-textual research, singling out the tangential points of Yehoshua (to whom is devoted Ben-Dov's Hebrew book In the Opposite Direction, 1995, about the novel Mr. Mani) and Oz on the one hand, and Agnon and the other: Agnon is a 'father figure' and a the creator of literary models on which Oz and Yehoshua draw. In addition, the book indicates the unique elements in the works of Oz and Yehoshua after they lay down a mature fictional mode. The writings that Ben-Dov chose to discuss are timeless.
Published works
- Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon, Brill's Series in Jewish StudiesBrill PublishersBrill is an international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes more than 134 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year...
, Leiden and New York, 1993. - In the Opposite Direction: A Collection of Studies on Mr Mani by A. B. Yehoshua. Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1995 (Hebrew).
- Unhappy/Unapproved Loves: Erotic Frustration, Art and Death in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon. Am OvedAm Oved-History:Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first Editor in Chief.It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publishing books that would "meet the spiritual needs of the working public." Its most well-known series is "Sifriyah...
, 1997 (Hebrew) - Ve-Hi Tehilatekha (And It Is Your Praise): Studies in the Writings of S. Y. Agnon, A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz. SchockenSchocken BooksSchocken Books is a publishing company that was established in Berlin with a publishing office in Prague in 1931 by the Schocken Department Store owner Salman Schocken. It published the writings of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Franz Kafka and S. Y...
, 2006 (Hebrew). - The Amos Oz Reader. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2009.
- Intersecting Perspectives: Essays on A.B. Yehoshua's Oeuvre, edited by Nitza Ben-Dov, Amir Banbaji and Ziva Shamir, United Kibbutz Press, 2010 (Hebrew).
- Written Lives: On Israeli Literary Autobiographies, Schocken, 2011 (Hebrew).
Further Reading
- Shalom Ratzaby, Notes on Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov (A review article), The Journal of Israeli History, vol. 15, no 1 (1994), pp. 123-124.
- Wendy Zierler, Probing Agnon: Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S.Y. Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov, The Jerusalem Post Magazine (25 March 1994), p. 26.
- Ziva Shamir, Agnon's Art of Indirection: Uncovering Latent Content in the Fiction of S. Y. Agnon. A review of the book by Nitza Ben-Dov, Edebiyāt, vol. 7 no.1 (1996), pp. 163-165.
- Gabriella Avigur-Rotem, A Journey into the Lands of Agnon: A review of Unhappy/Unapproved Loves: Erotic Frustration, Art and Death in the Work of Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov. HaaretzHaaretzHaaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
Culture and Literature Supplement, 27 June 1997, p. D2. (Hebrew) - Sarah Halperin, Princes of language and simple folk: A review of Unhappy/Unapproved Loves: Erotic Frustration, Art and Death in the Work of Agnon by Nitza Ben-Dov. MaarivMaarivMaariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
Literature and Books Supplement, 9 Jan. 1998, p. 29. (Hebrew) - Fania Oz-Saltzberger, First, second and third truth: A review of And It Is Your Praise: Studies in the Writings of Sh. Y. Agnon, A. B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz by Nitza Ben-Dov. Kivunim Hadashim (New Directions), no. 16 (July 2007), pp. 278-284. (Hebrew)
- Mor Altshuler, He cast a giant shadow: A review of And It Is Your Praise by Nitza Ben-Dov. Ha'aretz Literary Supplement, 16 Dec. 2006.
- Robert AlterRobert AlterRobert Bernard Alter is an American professor of Hebrew language and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.-Biography:...
, And she is the praise: A review of And It Is Your Praise (Ve-Hi Tehilatekha): Studies in the Works of S.Y. Agnon, A.B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz by Nitza Ben-Dov. Keshet Hahadasha (New Array), no. 19 (spring 2007), pp. 31-35. (Hebrew). - Adia Mendelson-Maoz, Ve-Hi Tehilatekha: Studies in the works of S. Y. Agnon, A. B. Yehoshua, and Amos Oz, Hebrew Studies, January 2010
- Eilat Negev, "To each his own madeleine," a review of Hayyim Ktuvim (Written Lives: On Israeli Literary Autobiographies) Haaretz, Books November 2011, P. 10.
- Ben-Dov on the Haifa University website
- Lists of articles by Nitza Ben-Dov on the RAMBI website: Index of articles on Jewish studies
External links
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- Nitza Ben-Dov at RAMBI (English)
- Nitza Ben-Dov, “The Dead Do Not Praise the Lord”: Alter’s Psalms, Agnon’s “Tehilla,” Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, Hebrew Studies Volume 51, 2010
- Nitza Ben-Dov (November 5th 2010), Literary Criticism / The mother lode, HaaretzHaaretzHaaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...