Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers explores the response of Israel’s Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon to the privileged position of the Song of Songs in Israeli culture. Standing at a unique crossroads between religion and secularism, Agnon probes the paradoxes and ambiguities of the Zionist hermeneutic project. In adopting the Song, Zionist interpreters sought to return to the erotic, pastoral landscapes of biblical times. Their quest for a new, uplifting, secular literalism, however, could not efface the haunting impact of allegorical configurations of love. With superb irony, Agnon’s tales recast Israeli biblicism as a peculiar chapter within the ever-surprising history of biblical exegesis.
Nonfiction
Agnon’s Moonstruck Lovers: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture
- From the Publisher
March 13, 2014
Related Content: S.Y. Agnon reading list, Shir Hashirim: A Modern Commentary on the Song of Songs by Leonard Kravitz and Kerry Olitzky, The Song of Songs: The Honeybee in the Garden by Debra Band
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