Amalia Kahana-Carmon () was an Israeli author and literary critic. She was awarded the
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor.
History
The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...
for literature in 2000.
Biography
Amalia Kahana-Carmon was born in
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
Ein Harod
Ein Harod ( he, עֵין חֲרוֹד) was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz H ...
on October 18, 1926. She moved to Tel Aviv as a child and studied at
Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium ( he, הַגִּימְנַסְיָה הָעִבְרִית הֶרְצְלִיָּה, ''HaGymnasia HaIvrit Herzliya'', Also known as ''Gymnasia Herzliya''), originally known as HaGymnasia HaIvrit (lit. Hebrew High Scho ...
, but her studies were interrupted by the
1948 Palestine war
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...
where she served in the Negev Brigade of
Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
as a signals operator and wrote the famous telegram for the capture of
Eilat
Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan ...
.
Upon her return from military service, Kahana-Carmon attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied library science and philology.
Soon after graduating, she moved to Switzerland (1951 to 1955) and then to England (1955 to 1957) before moving back to Tel Aviv to work as a librarian and writer.
Family
Kahana-Carmon’s father, Chaim Kahana (1890-1910), immigrated to Palestine in 1910. In Palestine, he received a rabbinical education and both invented and held consultations for technical mechanisms. Her mother, Sara Crispin (1903-1985), was born in Bulgaria and attended the Hebrew Teachers Seminary in Bulgaria before immigrating to Palestine in 1922 where she studied bee-keeping at the
Mikveh Israel
Mikveh Israel ( he, מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל, 'Hope of Israel') is a youth village and boarding school in the Tel Aviv District of central Israel, established in 1870. It was the first Jewish agricultural school in what is now Israel ...
Agricultural School. Crispin spent the rest of her life as a bee-keeper and Hebrew teacher. Kahana-Carmon had one younger sister named Miriam (b. 1929). While Kahana-Carmon was in London in 1951, she met and married an Israeli student named Arie Carmon, who studied civil engineering. They had three children together–Raya (b. 1953), Iddo (b. 1956), and Haggai (b. 1959)–before divorcing in 1978.
Life as a writer
Kahana-Carmon began writing in the 1950s but is not considered to be part of the Palmah Generation, a movement that dominated the literary scene in the 1940s and 1950s, nor the Generation of Statehood, a counter-movement to the Palmah Generation.
Her writing differed from these groups in an important way: it centered around the individual rather than national ideals. This does not mean that Kahana-Carmon was not influenced by others; in fact, her writing was shaped by Nehamah Pukhachewsky (1869-1934), who wrote about the struggles of women pioneers in Palestine, and
Devorah Baron
Devorah Baron (also spelled Dvora Baron and Deborah Baron) (27 November 1887 20 August 1956) was a pioneering Jewish writer, noted for writing in Modern Hebrew and for making a career as a Hebrew author. She has been called the "first Modern Heb ...
(1886-1956), who wrote about the victimization of women in male-dominated religious Jewish institutions. Many also believe that Kahana-Carmon’s writing was influenced by
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
because of their shared lyrical, poetic style, but Kahana-Carmon commented that this relation was due to similarity in thought rather than any influence.
During Kahana-Carmon’s time, authors who explored national ideals, usually represented by men's lives, were valued over those who focused on the individual or women’s experiences. Typically when women were mentioned, they were used as metaphors for the land of Israel. Consequently, women’s writing, which more often than not centered around women’s experiences, was pushed to the periphery. Kahana-Carmon’s writing was no exception to this.
That being said, Kahana-Carmon believed that all writers were outsiders, not because of social rejection but because others were incapable of understanding their commitment to their crafts.
Many have tried to translate Kahana-Carmon’s writing, but she rejected their attempts, believing that her work was untranslatable. There are still a few translations that do exist, including ''With Her on Her Way Home'', translated into Italian and Chinese, and ''Bridal Veil'', in G. Abramson’s (ed.) ''Oxford Book of Hebrew Short Stories'' (1996) and R. Domb’s (ed.) ''New Women’s Writing from Israel'' (1996).
Literary style and themes
Kahana-Carmon writes about the lives of traditional women in male-dominated environments before marriage, during war, or during university years using a lyrical style that explores the depths of her characters’ emotions. Most of Kahana-Carmon’s writing focuses on one mundane event, and the descriptions are a reflection on that event, allowing the reader to peer into the inner world of the characters.
Generally, this reflection does not lead to a solution, but the characters experience freedom from understanding their situations.
Many of Kahana-Carmon’s characters experience romantic feelings, but often the object of these emotions is in a different social circle or the characters are in the wrong place at the wrong time, so they cannot be together.
Despite their romantic defeats, her heroines emerge as queens who recognize what they have lost but continue to have hope. She challenges the happily-ever-after paradigm but still believes in the dignifying aspects of love.
Furthermore, Kahana-Carmon’s characters are outsiders in their societies because of their genders, classes, or races. Some of them even cross gender and race boundaries, such as in ''Up in Montifer''. In this novella, Clara, the heroine, has a black, freed slave as her companion. She reaches independence as a merchant through dialogue with this freed slave, where both characters are gender and race conscious.
Kahana-Carmon also wrote feminist critiques of Israeli literature and culture. These essays were inspired by a trip to America where she attended an international meeting for writers and was introduced to
Frantz Fanon
Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...
(1925-1961), who wrote postcolonial criticisms about race relations. She was also inspired by gender critiques from
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
(1908-1986).
Awards
* In 1971, and again in 1980, Kahana-Carmon was awarded the
Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
The Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works, also known as the Levi Eshkol Literary Award, named after Israel's third Prime Minister, is an annual award granted to writers in the Hebrew language. The prize was established in 1969.
Abou ...
.
*In 1985, Kahana-Carmon was awarded the
Brenner Prize
The 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
Yosef Haim Brenner ( he, יוֹסֵף חַ ...
for literature. She was the first woman Hebrew fiction writer to receive this award.
*In 1993, she received the
Bialik Prize
The 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 Israel's national poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik
Hayim Nahman Biali ...
for Hebrew-language literature.
*In 1995, Kahana-Carmon received the Newman Prize.
*In 1995, Kahana-Carmon received the
ACUM Prize
The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel ( he, אגודת קומפוזיטורים, ומחברים ומו"לים), known by the acronym ACUM ( he, אקו"ם), is a non-profit copyright collective which engages in collectiv ...
.
*In 1997, Kahana-Carmon received the President’s Prize.
*In 2000, she was awarded the
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor.
History
The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...
, for original Hebrew literature.
Published works
* ''Under One Roof'' (1966)
* ''And Moon in the Valley of Ayalon'' (1971)
* ''A Piece for the Stage, in the Grand Manner'' (1975)
* ''Magnetic Fields'' (1977)
* ''High Stakes'' (1980)
* ''Up in Montifer'' (1984)
* ''With Her on Her Way Home'' (1991)
* ''Here We'll Live'' (1996)
See also
*
Hebrew literature
Hebrew literature consists of ancient, medieval, and modern writings in the Hebrew language. It is one of the primary forms of Jewish literature, though there have been cases of literature written in Hebrew by non-Jews. Hebrew literature was pro ...
*
List of Israel Prize recipients
This is a complete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 through to 2022.
List
For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize ...
References
Further reading
*
Nili Gold, Review of ''With Her on Her Way Home'' by Amalia Kahana-Carmon. “To Reach the Source: Amalia Kahana-Carmon,” ''Modern Hebrew Literature'', No. 10, 43-46 (1993).
* Yael S. Feldman, No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women's Fiction (Columbia UP, 1999), Ch.3: "Empowering the Other: Amalya Kahana-Carmon" (pp. 61–89).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahana-Carmon, Amalia
1926 births
2019 deaths
Brenner Prize recipients
Israel Prize in literature recipients
Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent
Israel Prize women recipients
Academic staff of the Open University of Israel
Israeli novelists
Israeli women short story writers
Israeli short story writers
Hebrew-language writers
Israeli librarians
Israeli women librarians
Israeli women novelists
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
International Writing Program alumni
20th-century Israeli women writers
20th-century Israeli writers
21st-century Israeli women writers
21st-century Israeli writers
Recipients of Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary Works
Jewish women writers
People from Northern District (Israel)
Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium alumni