The core theme of this volume is that, in his literary fiction, David Grossman has created a language that operates on two levelsthe ethical and the poetic. This duality of levels contains an inherent tension between that which is expressible on a poetic level, whose boundaries are limitless, and the ethical, which is not definable. This book appeals to students and researchers. It examines, for the first time, the ethical aspect of Grossman's literary fiction as inspired by the thought of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas's thought also contains a tension between the ethical claim in everyday reality and the impossibility of defining ethics in language due to its transcendental origins. The comparison between Levinas and Grossman is based on the fact that, despite significant differences between them in terms of identity, both placed the ethical claim at the center of their work, and both grappled with the difficulty of defining this through indirect, albeit intentional, linguistic mechanisms. Lemberger argues that Grossman's work reflects the existence and development of a rich, ethical language across diverse life circumstances and at different life stagesand that consequently, Grossman is responsible for the creation of an ethical turn in modern Hebrew literature.

Sheds light on the richness of ethical turns in the works of David Grossman Argues that Levinas's conception of ethics is well-suited as an interpretation of Grossman Explores the language of fiction and everyday language as complementary systems expressing ethical positions

Autorentext

Dorit Lemberger, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, in the department of Hermeneutics and Culture that includes a Psychoanalysis and Hermeneutics track. She is an associate editor of Hebrew Studies Journal.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 Introduction: David Grossman's Ethical Turn in Modern Hebrew Literature in Light of Levinas's Ethical Language.- Chapter 2 Speech Addresses Itself to a Face: The Other and Ethical Development.- Chapter 3 Responsibility to others.- Chapter 4 Variations of dialogue.- Chapter 5 Feminine Voices and Ethical Desire.