THE PARABLE AND ITS LESSON - A NOVELLA Fiction. By S.Y.Agnon. Translated and annotated by James S.Diamond. Introduction and Critical Essay by Alan Mintz. Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture. Stanford, CA - Stanford University Press, 2014. Pp. v + 160; glossary; notes. Cloth, $60.00; paper, $18.00; ebook, $10.00.
At a Glance
Section titled “At a Glance”| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2016-03-01 |
| Journal | Religious Studies Review |
| Authors | Katherine Brown Downey |
Abstract
Section titled “Abstract”This reissue of the novella, originally published in 1958, republished in a 1973 compilation by Agnon’s daughter titled A City in Its Fullness of stories set in Buczacz, the Ukraine town where the 1966 Nobel Prize winner lived until emigrating to Palestine, re-presents his postwar writing to revise critical assessment of it and to redefine Holocaust literature. Set decades after the 1648 Khmelnitski massacres, it reverts in style and concern from the Agnon most know to traditional European Jewish writing. Mintz argues in the essay which follows the novella that though the Holocaust is nowhere mentioned, it was very much in Agnon’s mind when composing it and the rest of the Buczacz stories; that the 1648 devastation is viewed from both a half century later and through the lens of 1939-1945, and vice versa, makes it a “rehearsal for the Holocaust” and for the post-Holocaust. Not only does this correct a misperception of Agnon’s project and late-in-life powers, it also suggests an expansion of what Holocaust literature might entail: from literature set during the Holocaust to literature “provoked by the Holocaust.” Mintz’s essay is persuasive. Diamond’s translation is canny in tuning the ear to the cadences of traditional Jewish speech, bringing the reader close enough to decipher but not so close as to render the voice familiar. Key Hebrew terms are left untranslated. A glossary provides translations and notes explain allusions, references, concepts, rituals, and events, but only as last resort—for the reading experience is one of parsing meaning from context and suspending the need for familiarity. These aids and Mintz’s essay make for an enriched second reading. The whole is a must-have for those interested in Hebrew literature, Agnon, Holocaust literature, and Jewish cultural history. One wants now to read the other 149 stories. Mintz and Diamond accomplished their purpose.