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Robert Alter
 
 
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Robert Alter is a Biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 scholar and the Class of '37 Professor of Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 and Comparative Literature
Comparative literature

Comparative literature is literary criticism dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups. While most frequently practiced with works of different languages, it may also be performed on works of the same language if the works originate from different nations or cultures among which that languag...
 at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public university research university located in Berkeley, California, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines....
, where he has taught since 1967. He has written seventeen books, and is noted most recently for his translations of sections of the Bible. His works have garnered positive reviews from such publications as The New Yorker
The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an United States magazine that publishes reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published 47 times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans....
 and The Washington Post
The Washington Post

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C., United States and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877....
.

Known for his wide range of expertise and appealing use of language, he lectures on topics varying from Biblical episodes to Kafka's modernism.






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Robert Alter is a Biblical
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 scholar and the Class of '37 Professor of Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 and Comparative Literature
Comparative literature

Comparative literature is literary criticism dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups. While most frequently practiced with works of different languages, it may also be performed on works of the same language if the works originate from different nations or cultures among which that languag...
 at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is a public university research university located in Berkeley, California, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines....
, where he has taught since 1967. He has written seventeen books, and is noted most recently for his translations of sections of the Bible. His works have garnered positive reviews from such publications as The New Yorker
The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an United States magazine that publishes reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Starting as a weekly in the mid-1920s, the magazine is now published 47 times per year, with five of these issues covering two-week spans....
 and The Washington Post
The Washington Post

The Washington Post is the newspaper with the largest circulation in Washington, D.C., United States and is the city's oldest paper, founded in 1877....
.

Known for his wide range of expertise and appealing use of language, he lectures on topics varying from Biblical episodes to Kafka's modernism. One of his more important contributions is the introduction of the type scene into contemporary scholarly Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
 studies. An example of a type scene would be the going to the well in order to get water, which is something that happens a number of times especially in Genesis
Genesis

Genesis or Breishit is the first book of the Bible used by Judaism and Christianity, and the first of five books of the Pentateuch or Torah....
, and the purpose of which is generally for the man in question to find a suitable mate.

Alter earned his bachelor's degree in English (Columbia University
Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York , is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights, Manhattan neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City....
, 1957), and his master's (1958) and doctorate degrees (1962) from Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 in comparative literature. He started his career as a writer at Commentary Magazine, where he was for many years a contributing editor.

He has served as an active member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning. It serves as a nationwide honor society for the United States....
 and the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the de facto national library of the United States and the research arm of the United States Congress. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books....
, and is currently serving as president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics
Association of Literary Scholars and Critics

The Association of Literary Scholars and Critics was organized in 1994 by a group of conservative senior scholars who felt that, given the continuing interest in literature among a large number of students, teachers, and educated general readers, there ought to exist in America an organization devoted to literary studies in addition to the M...
. He has twice (1966, 1978) been a Guggenheim Fellow, has been a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jeruselem, and Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University
Princeton University

Princeton University is a private university university located in Princeton, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League and has the largest per-student Financial endowment in the world....
.

Selected Works

  • , 1984, Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press

    Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
  • , in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1986, Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press

    Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
  • Edited by Alter and Frank Kermode, 1987, Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press

    Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
  • , 1991, Harvard University Press
    Harvard University Press

    Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913....
  • The Five Books of Moses, ISBN 0-393-01955-1
  • The David Story (1 and 2 Samuel), ISBN 0-393-32077-4
  • Psalms, ISBN 978-0-393-06226-7


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