"Da war ich gekommen, Rache zu nehmen." Deutschlandbesuch und Vergeltungsdiskurs in der israelischen Literatur : 12. Internationale Joseph-Carlebach-Konferenz
Regionales Rechenzentrum der Universität Hamburg/ MCC/ Lecture2Go
Verlag/Körperschaft:
Universität Hamburg
Erscheinungsjahr:
2021
Medientyp:
Audiovisuell
Schlagwort:
Sprache, Literatur, Medien (SLM I + II)
Beschreibung:
Literature has always been a trustworthy indicator for the state of Israeli-German cultural relations which did not necessarily develop at the same pace as their political counterparts. Writers have been traveling and books have been translated across the Mediterranean even before diplomatic relations were established. The field of literary awards is particularly fruitful for exploring the changing fashions and preferences regarding the literature of the other side. But literature has also been in itself an arena for depicting and discussing Israeli-German relations with all their complexities and contradictions. One of the more delicate (and persistently recurring) literary motifs in this context is revenge. This paper examines how the absence of Nazi perpetrators in Israel compels Israeli writers to send their protagonists on a journey to Germany thus connecting questions of being in the “other place” with reflections on the possibilities and moral implications of imagining/taking revenge for Nazi crimes. The paper analyzes novels by Yehuda Amichai (Not of This Time, Not of This Place), Amoz Oz (Elsewhere, Perhaps), Dan Ben Amotz (To Remember, to Forget), Rivka Keren (Anatomiya shel nekama) and Chaim Be’er (Lifne Ha-Makom) and asks not only how they are written, but also, how they are translated and have been read differently in Germany and Israel.