The Sin of Writing and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature (New Directions in Book History)

"The Sin of Writing and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature contends that the processes of enlightenment, modernization, and secularization in nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewish society were marked not by a reading revolution but rather by a writing revolution, that is, by a revolutionary change in this society's attitude toward writing. Combining socio-cultural history and literary studies and drawing on a large corpus of autobiographies, memoirs, and literary works of the period, the book sets out to explain the curious absence of writing skills and Hebrew grammar from the curriculum of the traditional Jewish education system in Eastern Europe. It shows that traditional Jewish society maintained a conspicuously oral literacy culture, colored by fears of writing and suspicions toward publication. It is against this background that the young yeshiva students undergoing enlightenment started to "sin by writing," turning writing and publication in Hebrew into the cornerstone of their constitution as autonomous, enlightened, male Jewish subjects, and setting the foundations for the rise of modern Hebrew literature."--Provided by publisher Preface and Acknowledgments Note on Transliteration Contents 1 Introduction Reading vs. Writing in the Study of Literacy and the Writing Revolution in Eastern European Jewish Society Literacy, Writing, and Belles Lettres in the Jewish Enlightenment The Primacy of Speech Over Writing as a Cultural Code in Eastern European Jewish Society The Structure of the Book and Its Main Arguments 2 Literacy: Theory, Methodology, Ethnography Speech and Writing: From Plato to Derrida From the Autonomous Model to the Ideological Model New Literacy Studies and the Case of Jewish Society Autobiographies, Stories of Literacy Events, and an Ethnographic Perspective on the Meanings of Literacy 3 Reading Without Writing and the Myth of Universal Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Eastern European Jewish Society The Status of Writing, Its Uses, and Its Instruction The Study of Jewish Literacy and the Myth of Universal Literacy Reading vs. Writing in the Study of Jewish Literacy The Status of Writing and the Portraits of Its Teachers and Students In the Heder and Outside It: The Meanings of Writing and Its Images Gendered Images of Writing Research into Methods of Instruction in the Heder: Functionalism and Apologetics in the Study of Jewish Literacy 4 The Primacy of Speech Over Writing in Hasidic Society An Ethnographic Perspective on Reading Without Writing in Hasidic Society Ignorance of Writing and Oral Charisma The Tzaddik and His Scribe: Oral Charisma and the Social Control of Knowledge Speech, Books, and the Sin of Writing Writing, Pride, and Gender The Rise of Print and Its Paradoxical Consequences Print and Haskalah 5 The Primacy of Speech Over Writing in Mitnagdic Society The Mitnagdic Version of the Primacy of Speech: Knowledge, Memory, and Methods of Study Fighting the War of Torah: Dialogue, Dialectic, and Public Performance Vocal vs. Silent Reading: From Religious Literacy to the Reading of Modern Literature The Hierarchy of Suspicion and the Boundaries of Legitimacy: Practices of Writing Among Young Yeshiva Scholars “Things that Are Spoken—You Are not Allowed to Say in Writing”: Semi-Halakhic Aspects of Writing Inhibitions Speech and Writing in Traditional Jewish Society: Interim Summary 6 The Written Torah and the Oral Torah: Class, Gender, and the Cultural Images of the Corpora The Hierarchy of Corpora and Its Relation to Class and Gender Stratification The Bible and Aggadah: The Maternal Heritage “The Bible—My Mother, and My Father—The Talmud”: Gender Identity and the Desire for Myth The Cultural and Psychological Ambivalence of the Desire for the Maternal Heritage 7 Intentional Ignorance of the Hebrew Language “This Is Grammar, and We Do Not Study Grammar” Intentional Ignorance The Exclusion of Grammar from the Curriculum The Status of the Bible in the Traditional Education System The Model Set by Rabbinic Language Explicit Justifications and Implicit Reasons for the Intentional Ignorance of Hebrew “And Keep Your Sons from Reason” Intentional Ignorance of Hebrew and the Status of Modern Hebrew Literature “Grammar Was the Bane of the Maskilim” Who Is Master of the Language? The Paradoxes of Biblical Purism 8 From Mother Tongue to Father Tongue: The Study of Grammar, Reading, and Writing in Hebrew as a Male Maskilic Rite of Passage Rites of Passage and Their Maskilic Version Writing in Yiddish and the Feminization of Writing Knowledge and Eros: The Coming of Age Narrative “Stolen Water Is Sweet”: The Coming of Age Narrative as a Story of Reading The Hebrew Language and the Maskilic Male Conversion Rite Visiting the Mentor and the Stage of Separation “Between Two Worlds”: The Liminal Stage and the Divided Self Writing in Hebrew: The Ticket of Entry into the Male Community of Maskilim The Role of Writing Practices in the Consolidation of Maskilic Communities Writing, Language, Gender, and Nationality 9 “I Made Myself a Notebook of Blank Paper”: The Sins of Writing and the Constitution of the Subject The Sins of Acquiring Writing Genre Indeterminacy as a Challenge to the Distinction Between the Sacred and the Profane On the Borderline: Biblical Inlay (Shibuts) and the Shift From Oral Dominance to the Privileging of Writing The Sins of Writing and the Divided Self The Sin of Pride and Confessional Writing The Sins of Youth: Between Hubris and Eros Writing as a Site of Conflict with the Father Writing and the Constitution of the Subject Conclusion: Writing as Transgression and the Writing Revolution in Eastern European Jewish Society 10 Epilogue: Writing, Tradition, and Modernity in “Only for the Lord Alone” by S. Y. Agnon The Status of Writing in Agnon’s Work: Torn Between Tradition and Modernity Glossary Bibliography Name Index Subject Index The Sin of Writing and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature contends that the processes of enlightenment, modernization, and secularization in nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewish society were marked not by a reading revolution but rather by a writing revolution, that is, by a revolutionary change in this society's attitude toward writing. Combining socio-cultural history and literary studies and drawing on a large corpus of autobiographies, memoirs, and literary works of the period, the book sets out to explain the curious absence of writing skills and Hebrew grammar from the curriculum of the traditional Jewish education system in Eastern Europe. It shows that traditional Jewish society maintained a conspicuously oral literacy culture, colored by fears of writing and suspicions toward publication. It is against this background that the young yeshiva students undergoing enlightenment started to sin by writing,? turning writing and publication in Hebrew into the cornerstone of their constitution as autonomous, enlightened, male Jewish subjects, and setting the foundations for the rise of modern Hebrew literature. 00Transl. from Hebrew