Browsing by Subject "Hebrew"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Alon Hilu’s Death of a Monk as transgression
(2022-05-06) Rangell, Benjamin; Grumberg, Karen; Raizen, Esther
Alon Hilu’s Death of a Monk (mot ha-nazir, 2004) is a historical novel about the Damascus Affair (1840) and the blood libel’s consequences for Aslan Farhi—a Jewish adolescent whose family was under suspicion during the time of the inquisitions. The Damascus Affair is well-suited to showcase history’s fraught relationship to linguistic representation because the facts of the event themselves are so indeterminate. As a result of this uncertainty, two divergent mythologies have contributed to sustaining the Affair’s relevance: For antisemites, the Affair confirmed previously held suspicions of ritual murder by the hands of Jewish citizens. For the generations of Jews who have studied the Affair, the event has become laden with protonationalist and even messianic significance. I argue that Hilu’s mode of writing is transgressive, primarily because it is engaged with the overlapping relationship between fiction and history. Using transgression as a common theme, I analyze three types of mixings or hybrids in the story itself (animality, dialogue and space). In doing so, I position Aslan’s as an anti-coming-of-age story, one in which the hero rejects the identities he inherits rather than being made by them.
Behind the Linguistic Landscape of Israel/Palestine : exploring the visual implications of expansionist policies
(2014-05) Carey, Shaylyn Theresa; Brustad, Kristen
The concept of the Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new and developing field, but it is already proving to illuminate significant trends in sociocultural boundaries and linguistic identities within heterogeneous areas. By examining types of signage displayed in public urban spaces such as street signs, billboards, advertisements, scholars have gained insight into the inter and intra-group relations that have manifested as a result of the present top-down and bottom-up language ideologies. This paper will apply LL theory to the current situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories through a discussion of the various policies that have shaped the Linguistic Landscape. It will begin by examining the Hebraicization of the toponymy after the creation of Israel, then discuss the conflict over the linguistic landscape, which can be seen in several photographs where the Arabic script has been marked out or covered. Moving forward, this work will address the grammatical errors on Arabic language signs, which reflect the low priority of Arabic education in Israel. Finally, this project will expand upon the LL framework by looking at the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian territories and how it is reflected in public places, such as supermarkets, which display an overwhelming presence of Hebrew. Through the use of photographic evidence of the LL from the region, which shows the prevalence of Hebrew place names, Israeli economic goods, and negative attitudes towards the use of Arabic on signage, this paper will take a multidisciplinary approach at examining the history and policies that shape the language used in public urban spaces. The relationship between the state and the Linguistic Landscape sheds light on the power dynamics of a multilingual space. As Hebrew is given preferential treatment, despite the official status of both Arabic and Hebrew, Israel continues to dominate the social space with the use of Hebrew in order to assert their claims to the land. In addition to investigating the power dynamics that are reflected on visual displays of language in this region, this work serves as a meaningful contribution to the Linguistic Landscape by expanding its methodology and units of analysis.
Border fiction : fracture and contestation in post-Oslo Palestinian culture
(2013-12) Paul, William Andrew; El-Ariss, Tarek; Grumberg, Karen
This dissertation delves into a body of Palestinian literature, film, and art from the past two decades in order theorize the relationship between borders and their representations. In Israel and Palestine, a region in which negotiating borders has become a way of life, I explore the ways in which ubiquitous boundaries have pervaded cultural production through a process that I term “bordering.” I draw on theoretical contributions from the fields of architecture, geography, anthropology, as well as literature and film studies to develop a conceptual framework for examining the ways in which authors, artists, and filmmakers engage with borders as a space to articulate possibilities of encounter, contestation, and transgression. I argue that in these works, the proliferation of borders has called into question the Palestinian cultural and political consensus that created a shared set of narratives, symbols, and places in Palestinian cultural production until the last decade of the 20th century. In its place has emerged a fragmented body of works that create what Jacques Rancière terms “dissensus,” or a disruption of a cultural, aesthetic, disciplinary, and spatial order. Read together, they constitute what I term a “border aesthetic,” in which literature, film, and art produce new types of spaces, narratives, and texts through the ruptures and fractures of the border. I trace the emergence of this aesthetic and the new genres and forms that distinguish it from earlier Palestinian literary, political, and intellectual projects through analyses of the works of Elia Suleiman, Sayed Kashua, Raba’i al-Madhoun, Emily Jacir, Yazid Anani, and Inass Yassin. In their attempts to grapple artistically with the region’s borders, these authors, directors, and artists create new codes, narratives, vernaculars, and spaces that reflect the fragmentation wrought by pervasive boundaries. These works, fluent in multiple mediums, genres, and languages, reveal both the possibilities and the limits of this aesthetic, as they seek to contest borders but nevertheless remain bound by them.
Identity and anxiety in teachers of Arabic and Hebrew : the native vs. nonnative speaker question
(2013-08) Caravita, Joanna Ruth; Raizen, Esther, 1951-
This study examines the beliefs of foreign language teachers regarding the relative positions of native and nonnative speakers in foreign and second language education. In particular, I am concerned with the idealization of the native speaker in this context and the foreign language anxiety that may occur in nonnative speaker language teachers if they internalize this idealization. I collected data from 29 college-level Arabic and Hebrew teachers using four methods: (1) a questionnaire on their background and beliefs regarding native and nonnative speaker language teachers, (2) a version of the Teacher Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, 2007), (3) a one-on-one interview, and (4) class observation. By and large, study participants believed that native speakers, because of their nativity, have reached higher levels of linguistic and cultural proficiency with relative ease, and as a result are more readily granted credibility as teachers of their native language. Participants believed that nonnative speakers are more empathetic and understanding of their students' problems because of their own experience and efforts as students of the language. With regard to foreign language anxiety, the main sources of anxiety among the nonnative speaker participants were the fear of making mistakes (and losing credibility as a result), of not having the authority to speak on cultural issues, of not being hired when competing with native speakers, and of addressing professional audiences. Native speakers feared that they cannot anticipate or understand as easily as nonnative speaker teachers the difficulties their students have in learning their language, because they cannot relate to their experiences in the same way. Neither group, however, reported feeling particularly anxious overall. I argue that anxiety was minimal for both groups because of specific steps that participants have taken to overcome the perceived disadvantages of their group and thereby bolster their confidence. Participants reported gaining confidence through some combination of the following factors: (1) gaining experience and education, (2) improving their linguistic and cultural proficiency, (3) presenting the persona of a credible language teacher through extra preparation and language choices, (4) receiving external validation, and (5) realizing that everyone can learn from and teach others.
Israeli-Arab authors claiming Hebrew identity : the case of Anton Shammas and Sayed Kashua
(2019-05-07) Scott, Emily Tobia; Grumberg, Karen
Anton Shammas and Sayed Kashua present two very different examples of Israeli-Arab authors writing in Hebrew. They belong to different generations, utilize different styles and media, and hold different reasons for writing in Hebrew. Yet, these two authors share some goals. Both seek to represent Israeli-Arab stories for a Hebrew-speaking audience by writing in Hebrew. I argue that Shammas and Kashua use different strategies to make their work palatable to this Israeli audience, and both succeed in securing a wide readership, despite the critical nature of their writing. In this thesis, I look at the different approaches they adopt to gain entrance to mainstream Israeli discourse. Shammas uses elevated Hebrew and writes in a sophisticated style that renders his work unimpeachable. Kashua uses humor, sarcasm, and absurdity to appeal to readers and utilizes popular media such as television and journalism. Despite their vastly different approaches and styles, both critique Israeli centers of power in their writing and manage to engage the dominant culture by using the language of the majority.
Language attitude and change among the Druze in Israel
(2012-05) Isleem, Martin A.; Brustad, Kristen; Raizen, Esther; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Mohammad, Mohammad; Shemer, Yaron
This study examines language attitudes and behaviors among the Druze in Israel in order to assess the roles of Arabic and Hebrew in this community. The study utilizes four different approaches: attitude surveys, a survey of linguistic landscapes, a study of language choice in the Internet and an analysis of codeswitching. The results of the language attitude survey indicate that a significant number of Druze exhibit inconsistent attitudes toward their first language and linguistic behavior patterns that are in line with general sociolinguistic patterns of language change. Young people, those with less education, and females all express significantly positive attitudes toward Hebrew. As reported in the literature, these groups have been instrumental in the process of language change. Patterns of language production and consumption in both street signage and websites affirm Bourdieu’s (1991) ideas regarding linguistic market capital as Hebrew is found to have greater value than Arabic in the Mount Carmel area, where the Druze maintain a strong connection with the Jewish-Israeli economy. In contrast, Arabic has a stronger presence in Druze neighborhoods in the Lower Galilee area. This is also true of Druze websites, particularly those that address the Palestinian-Israeli community, the majority in the Lower Galilee area. The study finds that while mixed language is the most common code of younger Druze Internet users, a relatively high percentage of cultural tradition and creative writing works were posted in Arabic. This study also investigates Druze spoken and written codeswitching behavior within the framework of Myers-Scotton's MLF model (1993, 2002). The analysis reveals that Arabic is the Matrix Language of the mixed constituents, although it is not the most common code in overall language produced. Although Arabic does not show signs of waning in the mixed languages’ syntactic structure, and is dominant in cultural tradition and literary works, there is manifest evidence of a language shift toward Hebrew, and the leading groups are: youth in general, and speakers in Mount Carmel.
Letter from Cyrus H. Gordon to Emmett L. Bennett Jr., February 15, 1962
(1962-02-15) Gordon, Cyrus H.
Reimagining linguistic landscape : online discourses of Israeli human rights organizations
(2019-05-09) Broome, Amy Evangeline; Mohammad, Mohammad A.
Language Policy and Linguistic Landscape methodologies, which have become popular in the field of sociolinguistics over the past few decades, examine the symbolic usage of language in public multilingual space as it relates to existing social structures and hierarchies. While a number of scholars have applied LL to the physical cityscape in towns and cities across Israel, this research seeks to broaden the scope of LL in two key ways. It first pushes the conception of public space to include virtual space, examining the “netscape” as opposed to a physical location. It also expands the notion of language to include broader understandings of discourse as a form of language in and of itself. Accordingly, this research assesses the online symbolism and language use of Israeli human rights organizations to gain further insight to not only the linguistic market of Israel, but that of human rights discourse as well. Through analysis of logos and mission statements of several Israeli advocating for Palestinian human rights, this paper investigates the ways in which these organizations navigate the challenges of translating Palestinian human rights violations into the global human rights discourse palatable to the Israeli public. The relationships represented through conflict between Arabic and Hebrew play out differently in the physical space than they do in the top-down representations of Israeli human rights organizations, but these language choices are yet made within the contexts of the human rights discourse surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. The nature of the conflict inherently suggests the use of Hebrew and Arabic, but the discourse itself requires the use of English as a means for accessing global resources. This research notes the intensified impact of globalization due to the English required for involvement in the human rights discourse and explores the ways in which this confluence of languages and language relations serves to both perform and constitute a unique human rights discourse space for left-leaning Israeli organizations.
Sayed Kashua Guest Lecture
(Joynes Reading Room, 2016-02-22) Valentine, Matt
Sayed Kashua Guest Lecture in Joynes Reading Room.
The second column (secunda) of Origen's Hexapla in light of Greek pronunciation
(2017-11-13) Kantor, Benjamin Paul; Pat-El, Na'ama; Huehnergard, John; Hackett, Jo Ann; Khan, Geoffrey
This dissertation addresses the phonology and orthography of the second column (Secunda) of Origen's (185–254 ce) Hexapla, which constitutes a Greek transcription of Biblical Hebrew. The transcription text is analyzed in light of its Hellenistic/Roman Near Eastern background, the phonology and orthography of Roman Palestinian Koine Greek, and roughly contemporary Greek transcription conventions for other languages. Aside from the brief introduction (chapter 1) and conclusion (chapter 7), this dissertation is comprised of five substantial chapters. Chapters 2 and 3 address the historical and social background of the text of the Secunda. In chapter 2, I argue that Origen did not have enough Hebrew knowledge to compose the text himself. In chapter 3, on the basis of comparative evidence from the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Near East, I argue that the Secunda originated among the Jewish scholarly community of Caesarea as a didactic aid in the second or third century ce. Chapters 4 and 5 address the linguistic background of the text of the Secunda. Chapter 4, based on a thorough analysis of the epigraphic evidence from ancient Palestine, provides a reconstruction of contemporary Greek pronunciation. Chapter 5, based on a linguistic analysis of comparative transcription material, surveys typical Greek transcription conventions from roughly the same period. Chapter 6 applies the data from the previous sections to the Hebrew vocalization tradition reflected in the text of the Secunda, addressing the phonemic and phonetic value of the consonants, vowels, and shewa as well as the syllable structure. Methodologically, the phonology and orthography of Secunda Hebrew are approached from the perspective of historical (Hebrew) linguistics, Greek pronunciation and orthography, linguistic studies on cross-language perception, and moraic phonology.