FLYER

ORIAS/BAGEP WORKING GROUP 2008
History Through Literature: Enduring Stories In Religious Traditions.

Literature from the Hebrew Bible: Book of Ruth and Sacrifice of Isaac

LOGISTICS

January 27, 2008, 10:30AM - 1:00PM

2223 Fulton Street, 6th floor - U. C. Berkeley (Campus map.)
GUEST PRESENTER

Yael Almog
almogATberkeley.edu

Yael Almog is a doctoral student in the department of Comparative Literature at Berkeley who is working on the legacy of the Hebrew Bible in modern literature. She is an alumna of the University of Amsterdam (Religious Studies) and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Comparative Literature), and taught high school for two years.
TOPIC The session on the Hebrew Bible will aim to ask what features of the biblical stories shape the variety of their adaptations in western civilization. We will approach this question by examining the content, form, and style of two significant stories: the Book of Ruth and the sacrifice of Isaac. Following a close reading of these stories, we will discuss the tenets of a few literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible, and relate the discussion to aspects of immigration, gender, and psychological conflicts that are reflected in the biblical texts.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
and LINKS

Alter, Robert. Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: NY, 1980.

Alter, Robert. The Art of Biblical Poetry. New York: Basic Books, 1987.

Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Princeton University Press; 50 Anv edition, 2003. English translation originally published by Princeton University Press in 1953.

Bal, Mieke. Lethal Love: Feminist Literary Readings of Biblical Love Stories (Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Hugo, Victor. Trans. E.H. and A.M. Blackmore. "Booz endormi" in Selected Poems of Victor Hugo. A Bilingual Edition.

"Boaz Asleep" (online) translation by Brooks Haxton. Penguin Classics (February 26, 2002).

Lasker-Schüler, Else. "Ruth" and "Boaz" in Selected Poems (Translated from German by Audri Durchslag-Litt and Jeanette Litman-Demeestère) Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2002.

Pardes, Ilana. The Biography of Ancient Israel: National Narratives in the Bible. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Images:

Marc Chagall: The Binding of Isaac
www.msgr.ca/msgr-4/marc_chagall_the_binding_of_isaac.htm

Rembrant: The Sacrifice of Isaac
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_035.jpg

Dore Bible: The Gleaners
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Dore_Bible_The_Gleaners.jpg

William Blake: Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1795-William-Blake-Naomi-entreating-Ruth-Orpah.jpg

Other images from Book of Ruth
http://www.biblical-art.com/biblicalsubject2.asp?id_biblicalsubject=6

Abraham and Isaac (East jamb figure on central portal of north transept, Chartres Cathedral.)
http://www.biblical-art.com/artwork.asp?id_artwork=6981&showmode=Full

ORIAS Working Groups are established to provide professional development support for K-11 and community college teachers with shared interests in international studies. The working groups provide teachers with the opportunity to extend their content knowledge by participating in seminars with University scholars; meeting with colleagues to share resources and experiences; and working independently or collaboratively on classroom materials with ORIAS staff.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS), the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for South Asia Studies at U. C. Berkeley. The Bay Area Global Education Program at the World Affairs Council of Northern California.

For further information contact Michele Delattre at ORIAS: 510-643-0868 or oriasberkeley.edu