Verschrankungen

An essay that suggests a fresh interpretation of Jewish literary traditions. It argues to focus on the plurality of their diverse diasporic foundations: only a perspective beyond the national allows us to understand, what Jewish Literature was - and still is. With this translation of the essay Harpaja lezorech negia ("Let go to touch") published in Hebrew in 2005, for which he wrote the "portraits" anew, one of Dan Miron's works appears in German for the first time. Here, Dan Miron reflects on the topic the specific, but not necessarily uniform, character of the overall complex of Jewish literatures. Instead of merging the polyphonic and heterogeneous phenomenon into a supposedly coherent national literature, he advocates thinking in terms of a plurality of Jewish textual culture. Instead of starting from a tradition and a canon, Miron suggests speaking of entanglements, interdependence and a literary "touch." With this approach, Miron succeeds in examining the very different Jewish literary traditions of the diaspora and at the same time those in to interpret plural Israeli literature as one voice in a large Jewish choir. Just a close look at the entanglements of multilingualism, difference and plurality, but not the popular or scientific insinuation of unity and uniformity, makes it possible to do justice to Jewish literatures in terms of literature as well as literary and intellectual.