A. B. Yehoshua
Encyclopedia
Abraham B. Yehoshua (born December 19, 1936) is an Israel
i novelist, essayist, and playwright. His pen name is A. B. Yehoshua.
Yehoshua served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army from 1954 to 1957. He attended Gymnasia Rehavia
. After studying literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he began teaching. He lived in Jerusalem's Neve Sha'anan
neighborhood.
From 1963 to 1967 Yehoshua lived and taught in Paris and served as the General Secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Since 1972, he has taught Comparative and Hebrew Literature at the University of Haifa
, where he holds the rank of Full Professor. In 1975 he was a writer-in-residence at St. Cross College, Oxford. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard (1977) the University of Chicago
(1988, 1997, 2000) and Princeton
(1992).
Yehoshua is married to Rivka, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. They have a daughter and two sons, and six grandchildren.
, Shmuel Yosef Agnon
, and William Faulkner
as formative influences. Harold Bloom
compared Yehoshua to Faulkner in an article in the New York Times and also mentions him in his book The Western Canon.
Yehoshua is the author of nine novels (for a complete list see below), three books of short stories, four plays, and four collections of essays, most recently "Ahizat Moledet" (Homeland Lesson), a book of reflections on identity and literature. His most acclaimed novel, Mr Mani, is a multigenerational look at Jewish identity and Israel through five conversations over the span of a century. It was adopted for television as a five-part series by director Ram Loevy
. His most recent novel, Friendly Fire, explores the nature of Israeli familial relationships. In a drama that moves back and forth between Israel and Tanzania, Yehoshua explores personal grief and bitterness.
His works have been published in translation in 28 countries, and many have been adapted for film, television, theatre, and opera.
In 2005, he was voted the 77th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
and freely airs his political views in essays and interviews. He is a long-standing critic of Israeli occupation but also of the Palestinians.
He and some other intellectuals mobilized on behalf of the dovish New Movement shortly before 2009 elections in Israel.
Yehoshua said in La Stampa
that he first related that even before the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict began, he had published an appeal to Gaza residents urging them to end the violence. Next he explained, "why the Israeli operation was necessary, but also how quickly it needs to end." Precisely because the Gazans are our neighbors, he said, "we need to be proportionate in this operation. We need to try to reach a cease-fire as quickly as possible." "We will always be neighbors, so the less blood is shed, the better the future will be," he added. Yehoshua added that he would be happy for the border crossings to be opened completely, and even for Palestinian workers to come to work in Israel as part of a cease-fire.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i novelist, essayist, and playwright. His pen name is A. B. Yehoshua.
Biography
A.B. Yehoshua was born to a fifth-generation Jerusalem family of Sephardi origin. His father, Yaakov Yehoshua, was a scholar and author specializing in the history of Jerusalem. His mother, Malka Rosilio, immigrated from Morocco in 1932.Yehoshua served as a paratrooper in the Israeli army from 1954 to 1957. He attended Gymnasia Rehavia
Gymnasia Rehavia
Gymnasia Rehavia is a high school in the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel.-History:Gymnasia Rehavia was the country’s second modern high school, after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. The school was first established in Jerusalem's Bukharan Quarter in 1909. The building on Keren Kayemet...
. After studying literature and philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he began teaching. He lived in Jerusalem's Neve Sha'anan
Neve Sha'anan
Neve Sha'anan can refer to:*Neve Sha'anan, Haifa - a large neighborhood in Haifa, Israel*Neve Sha'anan, Jerusalem - a neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel*Neve Sha'anan, Tel Aviv - a neighborhood in Tel Aviv, Israel...
neighborhood.
From 1963 to 1967 Yehoshua lived and taught in Paris and served as the General Secretary of the World Union of Jewish Students. Since 1972, he has taught Comparative and Hebrew Literature at the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, where he holds the rank of Full Professor. In 1975 he was a writer-in-residence at St. Cross College, Oxford. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard (1977) the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(1988, 1997, 2000) and Princeton
Princeton
-Princeton, New Jersey:*Borough of Princeton, New Jersey*Princeton Township, New Jersey*Princeton, New Jersey -Other places in New Jersey:*Princeton Junction, New Jersey*Princeton Meadows, New Jersey...
(1992).
Yehoshua is married to Rivka, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. They have a daughter and two sons, and six grandchildren.
Writing career
From the end of his military service, Yehoshua began to publish fiction. His first book of stories, "Mot Hazaken" (The Death of the Old Man) was published in 1962. He became a notable figure in the "new wave" generation of Israeli writers who differed from earlier writers in their focus on the individual and interpersonal rather than the group. Yehoshua names Franz KafkaFranz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon , was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon . In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon.Agnon was born in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire...
, and William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
as formative influences. Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom is an American writer and literary critic, and is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. He is known for his defense of 19th-century Romantic poets, his unique and controversial theories of poetic influence, and his prodigious literary output, particularly for a literary...
compared Yehoshua to Faulkner in an article in the New York Times and also mentions him in his book The Western Canon.
Yehoshua is the author of nine novels (for a complete list see below), three books of short stories, four plays, and four collections of essays, most recently "Ahizat Moledet" (Homeland Lesson), a book of reflections on identity and literature. His most acclaimed novel, Mr Mani, is a multigenerational look at Jewish identity and Israel through five conversations over the span of a century. It was adopted for television as a five-part series by director Ram Loevy
Ram Loevy
Ram Loevy is an award-winning Israeli television director and screenwriter since the medium first began broadcasting in the country in 1968...
. His most recent novel, Friendly Fire, explores the nature of Israeli familial relationships. In a drama that moves back and forth between Israel and Tanzania, Yehoshua explores personal grief and bitterness.
His works have been published in translation in 28 countries, and many have been adapted for film, television, theatre, and opera.
Awards and honours
- In 1983, A.B. Yehoshua was awarded the Brenner PrizeBrenner PrizeThe Brenner Prize is an Israeli literary prize awarded annually by the Hebrew Writers Association in Israel and the Haft Family Foundation.It was founded in the name of the author Yosef Haim Brenner and was first awarded in 1945....
. - In 1986, he received the AltermanNathan AltermanNathan Alterman was an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator who – though never holding any elected office – was highly influential in Socialist Zionist politics, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
Prize. - In 1989, he was a co-recipient (jointly with Avner TreininAvner TreininAvner Treinin was an Israeli poet and professor of physical chemistry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.-Biography:Treinin was born in Tel Aviv on February 14, 1928. At the age of two his family moved to Jerusalem...
) of the Bialik PrizeBialik PrizeThe Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...
for literature. - In 1995, he was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
for Hebrew literature. - He has also won the National Jewish Book Award and the Koret Jewish Book AwardKoret Jewish Book AwardThe Koret Jewish Book Award is an annual award that recognizes "recently published books on any aspect of Jewish life in the categories of biography/autobiography and literary studies, fiction, history and philosophy/thought published in, or translated into, English." The award was established in...
in the U.S., as well as the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary PrizeJewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary PrizeJQ Wingate Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host Jewish Quarterly and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate...
in the United Kingdom. - Yehoshua was shortlisted in 2005 for the first Man Booker International PrizeMan Booker International PrizeThe Man Booker International Prize is a biennial international literary award given to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation....
. - In 2006, "A Woman in Jerusalem" was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
- In Italy, he has received the Grinzane CavourGrinzane CavourGrinzane Cavour is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 50 km southeast of Turin and about 45 km northeast of Cuneo.Grinzane Cavour borders the municipalities of Alba and Diano d'Alba....
Award, the Flaiano Superprize, the Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
Prize, and the Viareggio PrizeViareggio PrizeThe Viareggio Literary Prize is a prestigious Italian literary award, whose first edition was in 1930, and is named after the Tuscan city of Viareggio...
for Lifetime Achievement. In 2003, his novel "The Liberated Bride" won both the Premio Napoli and the Lampedusa Literary Prize. "Friendly Fire" won the Premio Roma in 2008. - He has received honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union CollegeHebrew Union CollegeThe Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
(1990), Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
(1998), Torino University (1999), and Bar-Ilan UniversityBar-Ilan UniversityBar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
(2000).
In 2005, he was voted the 77th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
Ynet
Ynet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...
to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
Political views
An ardent, untiring activist in the Israeli Peace Movement, Yehoshua attended the signing of the Geneva AccordGeneva Accord
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a model permanent status agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, the Clinton Parameters, and the Arab Peace Initiative...
and freely airs his political views in essays and interviews. He is a long-standing critic of Israeli occupation but also of the Palestinians.
He and some other intellectuals mobilized on behalf of the dovish New Movement shortly before 2009 elections in Israel.
Yehoshua said in La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
that he first related that even before the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict began, he had published an appeal to Gaza residents urging them to end the violence. Next he explained, "why the Israeli operation was necessary, but also how quickly it needs to end." Precisely because the Gazans are our neighbors, he said, "we need to be proportionate in this operation. We need to try to reach a cease-fire as quickly as possible." "We will always be neighbors, so the less blood is shed, the better the future will be," he added. Yehoshua added that he would be happy for the border crossings to be opened completely, and even for Palestinian workers to come to work in Israel as part of a cease-fire.
Controversy
Yehoshua has been criticized by the American Jewish community for his statement that a "full Jewish life could only be had in the Jewish state." He claimed that Jews elsewhere were only "playing with Judaism."Quotes
"....[Diaspora Jews] change [their] nationalities like jackets. Once they were Polish and Russian; now they are British and American. One day they could choose to be Chinese or Singaporean...For me, Avraham Yehoshua, there is no alternative... I cannot keep my identity outside Israel. [Being] Israeli is my skin, not my jacket.
"The Palestinians are in a situation of insanity reminiscent of the insanity of the German people in the Nazi period. The Palestinians are not the first people that the Jewish people has driven insane."
Subsequent clarification by Yehoshua:
"I ask myself a question that must be asked: What brought the Germans and what is bringing the Palestinians to such hatred of us? … We have a tough history. We came here out of a Jewish experience, and the settlements are messing it up."
"Diaspora Judaism is masturbation," Yehoshua told editors and reporters at The Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
. "Here," meaning, in Israel, he said, "it is the real thing."
"[W]e are not bent on killing Palestinian children to avenge the killing of our children. All we are trying to do is get their leaders to stop this senseless and wicked aggression, and it is only because of the tragic and deliberate mingling between Hamas fighters and the civilian population that children, too, are unfortunately being killed. The fact is that since the disengagement, Hamas has fired only at civilians. Even in this war, to my astonishment, I see that they are not aiming at the army concentrations along the border but time and again at civilian communities."
Novels
- The Lover [Ha-Me'ahev, 1977]. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1978 (translated by Philip Simpson). Dutton, 1985. Harvest/HBJ, 1993. ISBN 978-0-15-653912-8
- A Late Divorce [Gerushim Meuharim, 1982]. London, Harvill Press, 1984. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1984. London, Sphere/Abacus Books, 1985. New York, Dutton, 1985. San Diego, Harcourt Brace, 1993. ISBN 978-0-15-649447-2
- Five Seasons [Molcho, 1987]. New York, Doubleday, 1989. New York, Dutton Obelisk, 1989. London, Collins, 1989. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1990. London, Fontana, 1990. ISBN 978-1-870015-94-3
- Mr. Mani [Mar Manni, 1990]. New York, Doubleday, 1992. London, Collins, 1992. London, Peter Halban, 1993. San Diego, Harvest/HBJ, 1993. London, Phoenix/Orion Books, 1994. ISBN 978-1-85799-185-7
- Open Heart [Ha-Shiv`a Me-Hodu (The Return from India), 1994]. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1995. London, Peter Halban, 1996. San Diego, Harvest/HBJ, 1997. ISBN 978-0-15-600484-8
- A Journey to the End of the Millennium [Masah El Tom Ha-Elef, 1997]. New York, Doubleday & Co., 1999. London, Peter Halban, 1999. ISBN 978-0-15-601116-7
- The Liberated Bride [Ha-Kala Ha-Meshachreret, 2001]. London, Peter Halban, 2004. ISBN 978-0-15-603016-8
- A Woman in Jerusalem [Shlihuto Shel Ha-memouneh Al Mashabei Enosh (The Human Resources Supervisor's Mission), 2004]. London, Halban Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-1-870015-98-1. New York, Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 978-0-15-101226-8
- Friendly Fire: A Duet [Esh Yedidutit,2007] London, Halban Publishers, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905559-08-4. New York, Harcourt 2008, ISBN 978-0-15-101419-4
Short Stories
- Early in the Summer of 1970 [Bi-Thilat Kayitz, 1970, 1972]. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1977. London, Heinemann, 1980. New York, Berkley Publishing, 1981. London, Fontana Paperbacks, 1990. ISBN 978-0-385-02590-4
- Three Days and a Child [Shlosha Yamim Ve-Yeled, 1975]. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1970. London, Peter Owen, 1971. ISBN 978-0-7206-0161-9
- The Continuing Silence of a Poet. London, Peter Halban, 1988. London, Fontana Paperbacks, 1990. London, New York, Penguin, 1991. Syracuse, N.Y., Syracuse University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0-8156-0559-1
Essays
- Israel. London, Collins, 1988. New York, Harper & Row, 1988. Jerusalem, Steimatzky/Collins Harvill, 1988.
- Between Right and Right [Bein Zechut Le-Zechut, 1980]. Garden City N.Y., Doubleday, 1981. ISBN 978-0-385-17035-2
- The Terrible Power of a Minor Guilt [Kocha Ha-Nora Shel Ashma Ktana, 1998]. New York, Syracuse University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-8156-0656-7
- "An Attempt to Identify the Root Cause of Antisemitism", Azure (Spring 2008).
Plays
- A Night in May [Layla Be-May, 1975]. Tel Aviv, Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature, 1974.
- Possessions [Hafatzim, 1986]. Portsmouth, Heinemann, 1993.
- Journey to the End of the Millennium, libretto for opera with music by Yosef Bardnaashvili. Premiered at Israeli Opera, May 2005.
Books
- Facing the Fires: Conversations with A. B. Yehoshua By: Bernard Horn. (Syracuse: University of Syracuse Press, 1998).
Journal articles
- Gershon Shaked Interviews A. B. Yehoshua By: Shaked, Gershon; Modern Hebrew Literature, 2006 Fall; 3: 157–69.
- A Haifa Life: The Israeli Novelist Talks about Ducking into His Safe Room, Competition among His Writer Friends and Trying to Stay Optimistic about Peace in the Middle East By: Solomon, Deborah; New York Times Magazine, July 30, 2006; 13.
- In the Back Yard of Agnon's House: Between The Liberated Bride by A. B. Yehoshua and S. Y. Agnon By: Ben-Dov, Nitza; Hebrew Studies: A Journal Devoted to Hebrew Language and Literature, 2006; 47: 237–51.
- Semantic Parameters of Vision Words in Hebrew and English By: Myhill, John; Languages in Contrast: International Journal for Contrastive Linguistics, 2006; 6 (2): 229–60.
- Talking with A. B. Yehoshua By: Naves, Elaine Kalman; Queen's Quarterly, 2005 Spring; 112 (1): 76–86.
- The Silence of the Historian and the Ingenuity of the Storyteller: Rabbi Amnon of Mayence and Esther Minna of Worms By: Yuval, Israel Jacob; Common Knowledge, 2003 Spring; 9 (2): 228–40.
- The Plot of Suicide in A. B. Yehoshua and Leo TolstoyLeo TolstoyLev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
By: Horn, Bernard; European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms, 2001 Oct; 6 (5): 633–38. - The Originary Scene, Sacrifice, and the Politics of Normalization in A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani By: Katz, Adam; Anthropoetics: The Electronic Journal of Generative Anthropology, 2001 Fall-2002 Winter; 7 (2): 9 paragraphs.
- Borderline Cases: National Identity and Territorial Affinity in A. B. Yehoshua’s Mr. Mani By: Morahg, Gilead; AJS Review 30:1, 2006: 167–182.
- The Perils of Hybridity: Resisting the Post-Colonial Perspective in A. B. Yehoshua's The Liberating Bride By: Morahg, Gilead; AJS Review 33:2, 2009: 363–378.
- Portrait of the Artist as an Aging Scholar: A. B. Yehoshua’s The Liberating Bride By: Morahg, Gilead; Hebrew Studies 50, 2009: 175–183.
- Early Warnings: The Grim Vision of The Liberating Bride By: Morahg, Gilead; Mikan 10, 2010: 5–18.
- Totem and blindness in Israel 2001: Cultural selection procedures presented in A.B. Yehoshua's novel 'The Liberating Bride' by: Albeck-Gidron, Rachel, Mikan 2005 jan; 4: 5–19.
Book articles
- Not Quite Holocaust Fiction: A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani and W. G. SebaldW. G. SebaldW. G. Maximilian Sebald was a German writer and academic. At the time of his death at the age of 57, he was being cited by many literary critics as one of the greatest living authors and had been tipped as a possible future winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature...
's The Emigrants By: Newton, Adam Zachary. IN: Hirsch and Kacandes, Teaching the Representation of the Holocaust. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America; 2004. pp. 422–30 - Shading the Truth: A. B. Yehoshua's 'Facing the Forests' By: Morahg, Gilead. IN: Cutter and Jacobson, History and Literature: New Readings of Jewish Texts in Honor of Arnold J. Band. Providence, RI: Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University; 2002. pp. 409–18
- Between Genesis and SophoclesSophoclesSophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
: Biblical Psychopolitics in A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani By: Feldman, Yael S.Yael S. FeldmanYael S. Feldman is an Israeli-born American scholar and academic particularly known for her work in comparative literature and feminist Hebrew literary criticism. She is the Abraham I...
. IN: Cutter and Jacobson, History and Literature: New Readings of Jewish Texts in Honor of Arnold J. Band. Providence, RI: Program in Judaic Studies, Brown University; 2002. pp. 451–64 - A Story of Sweet Perdition: Mr. Mani and the Terrible Power of a Great Obsession By: Morahg, Gilead IN: Banbaji, Ben-Dov and Shamir, Intersecting Prespectives: Essays on A. B. Yehoshua’s Oeuvre. Hakibbutz Hameuchad (Tel Aviv, 2010), pp. 213–225.
See also
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- List of Bialik Prize recipientsBialik PrizeThe Bialik Prize is an annual literary award given by the municipality of Tel Aviv, Israel for significant accomplishments in Hebrew literature. The prize is named in memory of Hayyim Nahman Bialik. There are two separate prizes, one specifically for "Literature", which is in the field of fiction,...
External links
- Abraham B. Yehoshua Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature Bio and list of works
- Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs short bio + links to books
- The Jewish Agency for Israel Short bio
- Zeek Magazine Shoshana Olidort's review of A.B. Yehoshua's Friendly Fire (2009).