Yosefa Raz, "The Poetics of Prophecy: Modern Afterlives of a Biblical Tradition" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Jul 16, 2024
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Yosefa Raz, an expert in Romantic poetry and biblical scholarship, explores how modern literature reimagines prophecy. The podcast discusses the connections between British and German Romanticism, Hebrew literature, and biblical texts, highlighting the tension between strong and weak prophetic power. It also delves into the evolution of prophetic roles, Ahad Ha'am's cultural Zionism, and analyzes prophetic poems inspired by biblical figures like Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
The relationship between Romantic poetry and biblical scholarship shapes modern prophecy interpretations.
The weakness of modern poet-prophets reflects both secularism crisis and biblical text instability.
Literary scholars like Robert Loth have influenced modern biblical interpretations through close literary readings.
Deep dives
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Exploring the Poetic Journey of Yosefah Raz in 'The Poetics of Prophecy'
Yosefah Raz, in her latest book 'The Poetics of Prophecy,' delves into the intersection of poetry, poetics, and biblical reception. Drawing from her background in English literature and Jewish studies, Raz intricately weaves together the worlds of prophets and poets, offering a unique perspective on biblical traditions in modern contexts. Through her exploration of prophetic texts and their afterlives, Raz unveils the complexities of prophecy and the intricate links between politics, trauma, and personal identity in her work.
Characterizing Biblical Prophets as Strong and Weak in Prophecy
The podcast episode delves into the characterization of biblical prophets as both strong and weak in prophecy. While traditional depictions often highlight prophets as majestic figures with powerful voices, the podcast explores the nuanced reality of prophets facing challenges, failures, and uncertainties in their prophecies. By examining examples from texts like Jeremiah invoking Moses and Samuel, the episode presents a thought-provoking analysis of the prophetic voices in biblical literature, shedding light on the complexities of prophetic figures.
Diving into the Literary Readings of the Bible by Robert Loth and its Influence on Modern Interpretations
The podcast discusses how literary readings of the Bible by scholars like Robert Loth have shaped modern interpretations of biblical texts. By focusing on reception history and close literary readings, scholars have uncovered new layers of meaning in biblical figures like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Delving into the works of scholars like Loth and their impact on understanding biblical poetry as literature, the episode highlights the evolution of biblical interpretation from early religious readings to more nuanced literary analyses.
Analyzing the Impact of Bialik's 'In the City of Slaughter' Poem in Jewish Culture and Zionism
The podcast explores the profound impact of Bialik's poem 'In the City of Slaughter' on Jewish culture and Zionism. Written in response to the Kishinev pogrom, the controversial poem invoked strong emotions and galvanized the Jewish people. By analyzing Bialik's prophetic voice and the themes of tragedy and despair in the poem, the episode sheds light on the enduring significance of 'In the City of Slaughter' as a literary and cultural work of profound resonance in Jewish history and literature.
Since the mid-1700s, poets and scholars have been deeply entangled in the project of reinventing prophecy. Moving between literary and biblical studies, Yosefa Raz's book The Poetics of Prophecy: Modern Afterlives of a Biblical Tradition (Cambridge UP, 2023) reveals how Romantic poetry is linked to modern biblical scholarship's development. On the one hand, scholars, intellectuals, and artists discovered models of strong prophecy in biblical texts, shoring up aesthetic and nationalist ideals, while on the other, poets drew upon a counter-tradition of destabilizing, indeterminate, weak prophetic power. Yosefa Raz considers British and German Romanticism alongside their margins, incorporating Hebrew literature written at the turn of the twentieth century in the Russia Empire. Ultimately she explains the weakness of modern poet-prophets not only as a crisis of secularism but also, strikingly, as part of the instability of the biblical text itself.
