Date of Award
4-19-2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Teaching & Learning
First Advisor
Michael Beard
Abstract
A novel preceded by a scholarly introduction, EVEN SATAN SPOKE HEBREW employs a variety of metafictional devices—collage, appropriation, borrowing, minoring, framing, indeterminacy, textual parody, obtrusive narration, structural constraints—in an attempt to propose a deliberate departure from the concepts of mimetic art, verisimilitude, and believability. Set in Jerusalem and Los Angeles, it revolves around an aspiring writer who insists on working in a foreign language, a self-professed exile accused of betraying her homeland, national identity, and mother tongue. When her first novel disappears—somehow she manages to misplace the only copy of her manuscript—she embarks on an intertextual journey in search of the lost book. Throughout this journey, the conventions of literary realism—lifelike characters that undergo a process of change, the integration of the individual into social structures, and the belief in a commonly experienced, objectively existing sense of reality and history—are called into question. Ultimately, through a self-conscious examination of the politics of violence, the manipulation of information, and the ownership of bodies, voices, and narratives, the protagonist is forced to reveal the fabricated truth about literary art, life in Israel, and her own missing book.
Recommended Citation
Elbom, Gilad, "Even Satan Spoke Hebrew" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 8060.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/8060