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A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This book examines the significant role that memory failures play in early rabbinic literature. The rabbis who shaped Judaism in late antiquity envisioned the commitment to the Torah and to its commandments as governing every single aspect of a person’s life. Their vision of a Jewish subject who must keep constant mental track of multiple obligations and teachings led them to be very preoccupied with forgetting: forgetting of tasks, forgetting of facts, forgetting of texts, and—most broadly—forgetting the Torah altogether. In Fractured Tablets, Mira Balberg examines the ways in which the early rabbis approached and delineated the possibility of forgetfulness in practice and study and the solutions and responses they conjured for forgetfulness, along with the ways in which they used human fallibility to bolster their vision of Jewish observance and their own roles as religious experts. In the process, Balberg shows that the rabbis’ intense preoccupation with the prospect of forgetfulness was a meaningful ideological choice, with profound implications for our understanding of Judaism in late antiquity.

Memory --- Rabbinical literature --- RELIGION / Judaism / History. --- Religious aspects --- Judaism. --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Hebrew literature --- Jewish literature

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The crisis in Israel/Palestine has long been the world's most visible military conflict. Yet the region's cultural and intellectual life remains all but unknown to most foreign observers, which means that literary texts that make it into circulation abroad tend to be received as historical documents rather than aesthetic artefacts. Rhetorics of Belonging examines the diverse ways in which Palestinian and Israeli world writers have responded to the expectation that they will 'narrate' the nation, invigorating critical debates about the political and artistic value of national narration as a reading and writing practice. It considers writers whose work is rarely discussed together, offering new readings of the work of Edward Said, Amos Oz, Mourid Barghouti, Orly Castel-Bloom, Sahar Khalifeh, and Anton Shammas. This book helps to restore the category of the nation to contemporary literary criticism by attending to a context where the idea of the nation is so central a part of everyday experience that writers cannot not address it, and readers cannot help but read for it. It also points a way toward a relational literary history of Israel/Palestine, one that would situate Palestinian and Israeli writing in the context of a history of antagonistic interaction. The book's findings are relevant not only for scholars working in postcolonial studies and Israel/Palestine studies, but for anyone interested in the difficult and unpredictable intersections of literature and politics.

History --- Politics. --- Auxiliary sciences of history --- Annals --- E-books --- Jewish-Arab relations in literature. --- Israeli literature --- Arabic literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. --- Arab-Israeli conflict -- Literature and the conflict. --- Hebrew literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. --- Israeli literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. --- Palestine -- In literature. --- Jewish-Arab relations in literature --- Literature and the conflict. --- Literature and the conflict --- Palestine. --- Hebrew literature, Modern --- Israeli literature (Hebrew) --- Arab-Israeli conflict in literature --- Israel-Arab conflicts in literature --- Holy Land --- Arab-Israeli conflict --- Arabic literature --- Hebrew literature --- History and criticism. --- Palestine --- In literature. --- Languages & Literatures --- Middle Eastern Languages & Literatures --- Jews --- Jewish literature --- Israel-Arab conflicts --- Israel-Palestine conflict --- Israeli-Arab conflict --- Israeli-Palestinian conflict --- Jewish-Arab relations --- Palestine-Israel conflict --- Palestine problem (1948- ) --- Palestinian-Israeli conflict --- Palestinian Arabs --- History and criticism --- Literature --- Arab-Israeli conflict. --- Literature. --- Belles-lettres --- Western literature (Western countries) --- World literature --- Philology --- Authors --- Authorship --- Allegory --- Arabs --- Israeli–Palestinian conflict --- Israelis --- Palestinians --- Rhetoric --- State of Palestine --- Zionism