Professor emerita, Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University.Medieval Hebrew literature.D. Phil. - Oxford University.Taught also at Princeton, Columbia and Berkeley universities.
University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2003
Preface 1 No-Woman's-Land: Medieval Hebrew Literature and Feminist Criticism 2 Gazing at the ... more Preface 1 No-Woman's-Land: Medieval Hebrew Literature and Feminist Criticism 2 Gazing at the Gazelle: Woman in Male Love Lyric 3 Veils and Wiles: Poetry as Woman 4 Poor Soul, Pure Soul: The Soul as Woman 5 Domesticating the Enemy: Misogamy in a Jewish Marriage Debate 6 Among Men: Homotextuality in the Maqama 7 Clothes Reading: Cross-Dressing in the Maqama 8 Circumcised Cinderella: Jewish Gender Trouble Afterword Notes Acknowledgments Index
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 2021
The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded... more The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded beggar-preacher who is revealed to be rich and lecherous. His sexual preference for a black maid leads his four white/Arab maids to murder him viciously, but not before taking revenge on his beard. In fact, the most notable feature of the false preacher is his gargantuan beard, which occupies a full one-third of the maqāma, and other beards are also excessively described. Following Robert Bartlett, I will relate to the beard as “social text” and explore its abundant symbolical meanings within the surrounding cultures of Islam and Judaism, as well as against the backdrop of Iberian contemporary society. Further, in order to better understand Ben Elʿazar’s manipulation of both the beard and the genre, as well as his emphasis on sexual, anal and scatological humor, I will have recourse to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theoretical discussions of “the grotesque body,” “the carnivalesque,” and to his gen...
Tova Rosen, Uriah Kfir. 2007, “‘What Does a Father Want?’ – An Unpublished Poem and its Intertext... more Tova Rosen, Uriah Kfir. 2007, “‘What Does a Father Want?’ – An Unpublished Poem and its Intertexts”, M. Rand and J. Decter (eds.), Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Letters in Honor of Raymond P. Scheindlin, New-Jersey: Gorgias Press, pp. 129-153
... Major poets (like Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, and Abraham Ibn Ezra), ... more ... Major poets (like Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, and Abraham Ibn Ezra), as well as lesser-known writers, were also most prolific in liturgy. Spanish liturgical poetry is divided Page 260. 244 TOVA ROSEN AND ELI YASSIF between a conservative trend ...
Page 1. TOVA ROSEN On Tongues Being Bound and Let Loose: Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature All ... more Page 1. TOVA ROSEN On Tongues Being Bound and Let Loose: Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature All hearts admire you? yours is hard as stone All mouths praise only you? But you respond with silence.1 ... who do not write. Page 3. Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature 69 ...
In the conventional esthetic norms of Arabic, and by extension, of medieval Hebrew literature, th... more In the conventional esthetic norms of Arabic, and by extension, of medieval Hebrew literature, the introductory distich in classic mono-rhymed poetry was deemed the poem's center of gravity. Indeed, the qasidas were lauded for the beauty of their preludes and the virtues of the introductory distich were hailed in various Arabic discourses in medieval poetics. Hence, the gravitational shift from the initial distich to the culminating strophes of the muwashshah was a striking departure from the paradigm of Arabic poet ry. The importance of the closure was underscored in the earliest studies of the muwashshah in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ibn Bass?m, a resi dent of Andalusia and the author of Kitab al-dhakhTra, and Ibn Sana al-Mulk, a resident of Egypt and the author of Dar al-tjrazfi'amal al-muwashshahat, recognized the pre-eminent status of the closure, i.e., the kharja or the markaz, and its dual influence on the very process of composition and poetic structure of...
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World. Editors: Jonathan Decter, Muriel Debie, and Jan Thiele. (Brill), 2021
The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded... more The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded beggar-preacher who is revealed to be rich and lecherous. His sexual preference for a black maid leads his four white/Arab maids to murder him viciously, but not before taking revenge on his beard. In fact, the most notable feature of the false preacher is his gargantuan beard, which occupies a full one-third of the maqāma, and other beards are also excessively described. Following Robert Bartlett, I will relate to the beard as "social text" and explore its abundant symbolical meanings within the surrounding cultures of Islam and Judaism, as well as against the backdrop of Iberian contemporary society. Further, in order to better understand Ben Elʿazar's manipulation of both the beard and the genre, as well as his emphasis on sexual, anal and scatological humor, I will have recourse to Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical discussions of "the grotesque body," "the carnivalesque," and to his generic model of the Mennipea.
In 'His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror': Andalusi, Judaeo-Arabic, and Other Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Ross Brann. Editors: Adam Bursi, S.J. Pearce, and Hamza Zafer (Brill, Leiden)., 2020
The story translated hereby is the eighth in a collection of ten stories (titled “The book of fab... more The story translated hereby is the eighth in a collection of ten stories (titled “The book of fables”) by Jacob Ben Elʿazar, a late thirteenth-century Jewish author from Toledo. His stories take the form of the Andalusi variety of the maqāma, allowing for more liberty of theme, narrative experimentalism and openness to diverse influences—Arabic as well as Romance. The story’s narrator, Lemuʾel, joins a huge crowd fascinated by a humongous beard belonging to a (Moslem?) preacher named Akhbor. His unruly beard, as well as his long pious sermon, are exaggeratedly represented. After being generously paid by the crowd, the seemingly-poor preacher returns to the luxurious mansion he owns. Suspicious Lemuʾel secretly follows him home. Peering from an ambush, he sees Akhbor merrily and lavishly partying with four young maidservants. As the four leave, a black woman enters to have fierce sex with Akhbor. Lemuʾel, being disgusted with the scene, calls back the four maidservants who smuttily insult Akhbor, pluck his beard off, and finally beat him up to death. Days later, in spring, the same four ex-maidservants stroll like ladies in blooming orchards. Four young gentlemen make awkward advances to them, upon which the ladies teach them a lesson in the art of Courtly Love. The story culminates in the marriage of the four couples. The epilogue, clearly detached from the story’s main body, introduces a novel romantic theme: Romance Courtly Love replacing the carnal eroticism of al-Andalus. The story’s hybrid cultural scene, may well epitomize the transition underwent by thirteenth-century Iberian Jewry from al-Andalus to Christian Spain.
University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2003
Preface 1 No-Woman's-Land: Medieval Hebrew Literature and Feminist Criticism 2 Gazing at the ... more Preface 1 No-Woman's-Land: Medieval Hebrew Literature and Feminist Criticism 2 Gazing at the Gazelle: Woman in Male Love Lyric 3 Veils and Wiles: Poetry as Woman 4 Poor Soul, Pure Soul: The Soul as Woman 5 Domesticating the Enemy: Misogamy in a Jewish Marriage Debate 6 Among Men: Homotextuality in the Maqama 7 Clothes Reading: Cross-Dressing in the Maqama 8 Circumcised Cinderella: Jewish Gender Trouble Afterword Notes Acknowledgments Index
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 2021
The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded... more The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded beggar-preacher who is revealed to be rich and lecherous. His sexual preference for a black maid leads his four white/Arab maids to murder him viciously, but not before taking revenge on his beard. In fact, the most notable feature of the false preacher is his gargantuan beard, which occupies a full one-third of the maqāma, and other beards are also excessively described. Following Robert Bartlett, I will relate to the beard as “social text” and explore its abundant symbolical meanings within the surrounding cultures of Islam and Judaism, as well as against the backdrop of Iberian contemporary society. Further, in order to better understand Ben Elʿazar’s manipulation of both the beard and the genre, as well as his emphasis on sexual, anal and scatological humor, I will have recourse to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theoretical discussions of “the grotesque body,” “the carnivalesque,” and to his gen...
Tova Rosen, Uriah Kfir. 2007, “‘What Does a Father Want?’ – An Unpublished Poem and its Intertext... more Tova Rosen, Uriah Kfir. 2007, “‘What Does a Father Want?’ – An Unpublished Poem and its Intertexts”, M. Rand and J. Decter (eds.), Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Letters in Honor of Raymond P. Scheindlin, New-Jersey: Gorgias Press, pp. 129-153
... Major poets (like Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, and Abraham Ibn Ezra), ... more ... Major poets (like Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, and Abraham Ibn Ezra), as well as lesser-known writers, were also most prolific in liturgy. Spanish liturgical poetry is divided Page 260. 244 TOVA ROSEN AND ELI YASSIF between a conservative trend ...
Page 1. TOVA ROSEN On Tongues Being Bound and Let Loose: Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature All ... more Page 1. TOVA ROSEN On Tongues Being Bound and Let Loose: Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature All hearts admire you? yours is hard as stone All mouths praise only you? But you respond with silence.1 ... who do not write. Page 3. Women in Medieval Hebrew Literature 69 ...
In the conventional esthetic norms of Arabic, and by extension, of medieval Hebrew literature, th... more In the conventional esthetic norms of Arabic, and by extension, of medieval Hebrew literature, the introductory distich in classic mono-rhymed poetry was deemed the poem's center of gravity. Indeed, the qasidas were lauded for the beauty of their preludes and the virtues of the introductory distich were hailed in various Arabic discourses in medieval poetics. Hence, the gravitational shift from the initial distich to the culminating strophes of the muwashshah was a striking departure from the paradigm of Arabic poet ry. The importance of the closure was underscored in the earliest studies of the muwashshah in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ibn Bass?m, a resi dent of Andalusia and the author of Kitab al-dhakhTra, and Ibn Sana al-Mulk, a resident of Egypt and the author of Dar al-tjrazfi'amal al-muwashshahat, recognized the pre-eminent status of the closure, i.e., the kharja or the markaz, and its dual influence on the very process of composition and poetic structure of...
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World. Editors: Jonathan Decter, Muriel Debie, and Jan Thiele. (Brill), 2021
The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded... more The Eighth Maqāma by Yaʿacov ben Elʿazar (Toledo, ca. 1200) tells the story of ʿAkhbor, a bearded beggar-preacher who is revealed to be rich and lecherous. His sexual preference for a black maid leads his four white/Arab maids to murder him viciously, but not before taking revenge on his beard. In fact, the most notable feature of the false preacher is his gargantuan beard, which occupies a full one-third of the maqāma, and other beards are also excessively described. Following Robert Bartlett, I will relate to the beard as "social text" and explore its abundant symbolical meanings within the surrounding cultures of Islam and Judaism, as well as against the backdrop of Iberian contemporary society. Further, in order to better understand Ben Elʿazar's manipulation of both the beard and the genre, as well as his emphasis on sexual, anal and scatological humor, I will have recourse to Mikhail Bakhtin's theoretical discussions of "the grotesque body," "the carnivalesque," and to his generic model of the Mennipea.
In 'His Pen and Ink Are a Powerful Mirror': Andalusi, Judaeo-Arabic, and Other Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Ross Brann. Editors: Adam Bursi, S.J. Pearce, and Hamza Zafer (Brill, Leiden)., 2020
The story translated hereby is the eighth in a collection of ten stories (titled “The book of fab... more The story translated hereby is the eighth in a collection of ten stories (titled “The book of fables”) by Jacob Ben Elʿazar, a late thirteenth-century Jewish author from Toledo. His stories take the form of the Andalusi variety of the maqāma, allowing for more liberty of theme, narrative experimentalism and openness to diverse influences—Arabic as well as Romance. The story’s narrator, Lemuʾel, joins a huge crowd fascinated by a humongous beard belonging to a (Moslem?) preacher named Akhbor. His unruly beard, as well as his long pious sermon, are exaggeratedly represented. After being generously paid by the crowd, the seemingly-poor preacher returns to the luxurious mansion he owns. Suspicious Lemuʾel secretly follows him home. Peering from an ambush, he sees Akhbor merrily and lavishly partying with four young maidservants. As the four leave, a black woman enters to have fierce sex with Akhbor. Lemuʾel, being disgusted with the scene, calls back the four maidservants who smuttily insult Akhbor, pluck his beard off, and finally beat him up to death. Days later, in spring, the same four ex-maidservants stroll like ladies in blooming orchards. Four young gentlemen make awkward advances to them, upon which the ladies teach them a lesson in the art of Courtly Love. The story culminates in the marriage of the four couples. The epilogue, clearly detached from the story’s main body, introduces a novel romantic theme: Romance Courtly Love replacing the carnal eroticism of al-Andalus. The story’s hybrid cultural scene, may well epitomize the transition underwent by thirteenth-century Iberian Jewry from al-Andalus to Christian Spain.
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