Studies in Near Eastern-Western Literary Relations

The Book of Job has held a central role in defining the project of modernity from the age of Enlightenment until today. What makes the Book of Job such a prominent text in modern literature and thought?  Why has Job’s response to disaster become a touchstone for modern reflections on catastrophic events?  What kind of answer (if at all) can the Voice from the Whirlwind offer in a post-theological age?  How is Job’s social critique translated by modern and postmodern thinkers and writers to address ethical and political concerns? In what ways does Job’s aesthetic legacy serve as a key to defining the cry of modern witnesses?    We will first discuss the response of modern critics and thinkers to these questions (Martin Buber, René Girard, Robert Alter, Gustavo Gutiérrez among others) and will then move on to explore a variety of literary texts pertaining to different cultural contexts – from Melville’s Moby-Dick and Kafka’s The Trial to Post Holocaust poetry (Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, and Dan Pagis).  Our discussion will also entail a consideration of a whole array of theoretical works on writing, disaster, and trauma (Maurice Blanchot, Shoshana Felman, Cathy Caruth, Giorgio Agamben).

Texts

Gustavo Gutiérrez – On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent

William Blake,  Illustrations of the Book of Job,ed. Foster Damon (please plan to order this book at Amazon, it will not be carried at the Cal Book store.)

Herman Melville – Moby-Dick  and “Bartleby”

Franz Kafka – The Trial

Hanoch Levine – The Sorrows of Job

Toni Morrison – Beloved

Course Reader