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A Phoenix in Fetters

David Patterson author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Rowman & Littlefield

Published:16th Aug '90

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A Phoenix in Fetters cover

Between the French Revolution and World War I, Hebrew literature experienced a veritable renaissance, first in Central Europe and then in Eastern Europe. Its vigorous search for new modes of expression played a major role in the revival of Hebrew as a living language. In A Phoenix in Fetters, David Patterson describes the extraordinary paradox affecting Hebrew literature in the 19th century. On the one hand it aspired to serve as a conduit for the Jews of eastern Europe from the medieval to the modern world. On the other hand, it embraced a theory of literature that artificially restricted its development. The paradox was resolved only in the first decades of the 20th century.

As in his earlier volumes, Patterson demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the Hebrew Enlightenment. The range of this volume is impressive. This is a work of meticulous and painstaking scholarship, austerely definitive in places, which will provide assistance and even material...for generations of scholars.... * Tudor Parfitt *
...a scrupulous and careful appraisal and analysis of the fiction of the Haskalah. * Journal Of Semitic Studies *

ISBN: 9780847675647

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm

Weight: 454g

200 pages