Yael S. Feldman (Hebrew: יעל פלדמן,
née Keren-Or, born 1941) is an
Israeli-born American scholar and academic particularly known for her work in comparative literature and feminist
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
literary criticism.
She is the Abraham I. Katsh Professor Emerita of Hebrew Culture and Education in the
Judaic Studies
Jewish studies (or Judaic studies; he, מדעי היהדות, madey ha-yahadut, sciences of Judaism) is an academic discipline centered on the study of Jews and Judaism. Jewish studies is interdisciplinary and combines aspects of history (espe ...
Department at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
and an affiliated professor of
Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
and
Gender Studies
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...
. She is also a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research, and a visiting fellow at
Wolfson College, Cambridge. Feldman has lectured and published internationally, and served as editor of both general and academic journals. Her research interests include Hebrew culture (biblical and modern);
history of ideas
Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual his ...
(particularly of
Zionism
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
and its contexts); gender and cultural studies; and psychoanalytic criticism.
Biography
Feldman received her B.A. in Hebrew literature and language and
English literature from
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
in 1967 and her M.A. in medieval
Hebrew literature from
Hebrew College
Hebrew College is a private college of Jewish studies in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Founded in 1921, Hebrew College is committed to Jewish scholarship in a pluralistic, trans-denominational academic environment. The president of the colleg ...
in 1976. Her Ph.D. dissertation at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
was on the Hebrew-American poet
Gabriel Preil
Gabriel Preil (Hebrew: גבריאל פרייל; August 21, 1911 – June 5, 1993) was a modern Hebrew poet active in the United States, who wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish. Preil translated Robert Frost and Walt Whitman into Hebrew.
Biography
Gabri ...
who
was to become the subject of her first book, ''Modernism and Cultural Transfer'':
''Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literary Bilingualism'' (1986). Her
MA thesis formed the basis of her second book, in Hebrew, ''Polarity and Parallel'': ''Semantic Patterns in the Medieval Hebrew Qasida'' (1987).
[Weinberger, Leon J]
+Medieval+Hebrew...-a0209800190 "Review: ''Polarity and Parallel'': ''Semantic Patterns in the Medieval Hebrew Qasida''
''Hebrew Studies Journal'', Vol. 31, January 1990 After receiving her Ph.D. in 1981, she completed postdoctoral study at the
.
Psychoanalytic theory has continued to inform her literary criticism as well as her studies on gender and biblical and
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
narratives, beginning with her third publication, ''Teaching the Hebrew Bible as Literature in Translation'' (1989) and subsequent articles. According to Glenda Abramson, writing in ''The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies'', by the 1980s Feldman was seen as one of the leaders of the study of Israeli literary feminism along with Anne Golomb Hoffman and Naomi Sokoloff. Her ''No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women's Fiction'', published in 1999, was the first book-length treatment devoted to Israeli women writers and written from a feminist perspective, especially the work of Virginia Woolf and Simon de Beauvoir. It was a finalist in the 2000
National Jewish Book Awards and its 2003 Hebrew translation, ללא חדר משלהן: מגדר ולאומיות ביצירתן של סופרות ישראליות: שולמית לפיד, עמליה כהנא-כרמון, שולמית הראבן, נתיבה בן-יהודה, רות אלמוג won the Abraham Friedman Award for Hebrew Literature. Her fifth book, ''Glory and Agony:
Isaac
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was th ...
's Sacrifice and National Narrative'', is the first book-length study of the ethos of national sacrifice in modern Hebrew culture. Growing out of her abiding interest in the impact of the Bible on contemporary psycho-politics, gender, and violence, it explores the biblical and classical stories of potential and enacted sacrifice (
Isaac
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was th ...
,
Jephthah
Jephthah (pronounced ; he, יִפְתָּח, ''Yīftāḥ''), appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father's name is also given as Gilead, ...
’s daughter,
Iphigenia
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; grc, Ἰφιγένεια, , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae.
In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting ...
,
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
) that have nourished myths of altruist heroism over the last century. This study was a finalist in the 2010
National Jewish Book Awards (Scholarship–Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award). It was described by
Perry Meisel
Perry Meisel, Professor of English at New York University for over forty years until his retirement in 2016, has written on literature, music, psychoanalysis, theory, and culture since the 1970s. His articles have appeared in ''The Village Voice, T ...
as “a dazzling synthesis of political and religious history, particularly the history of the State of Israel and the tradition of Biblical interpretation" and as an "essential reading for American readers" by
Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Suskin Ostriker (born November 11, 1937) is an American poet and scholar who writes Jewish feminist poetry.Powell C.S. (1994) ''Profile: Jeremiah and Alicia Ostriker – A Marriage of Science and Art'', Scientific American 271(3), 28-3 ...
. ''Glory and Agony'' has been praised in ''Review of Biblical Literature'', where Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer wrote "This fascinating, multifaceted, and erudite book... is both very enjoyable and highly thought provoking, and I can recommend it whole-heartedly."
Grants and awards
Feldman’s scholarship—twice a Finalist in the
National Jewish Book Awards and the winner of the Abraham Friedman Award for Hebrew Literature-was supported by various grants and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Humanities,
Fulbright-Hays Program
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
, Littauer Foundation, Centers for Advanced Jewish Studies at Oxford and PENN Universities,
Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
International Holocaust Research Center.
Editorial and other professional activities
Feldman served for 17 years (1985–2002) as the Culture and Art Editor of ''Ha-do'ar'', an American Hebrew Journal of long standing (1921–2005). She has also served on the editorial boards of the academic journals ''
Prooftexts'', ''Hebrew Studies'', ''Contemporary Women's Writings'', and ''Women in Judaism''. In 1992 she founded the Discussion Group for Modern Hebrew Literature at the
Modern Language Association of America and served as its first Chair.
Selected publications
Articles
The following is a selection of the more than 90 refereed journal articles and book chapters authored by Yael Feldman.
*“The Romantic Hebraism of
Gabriel Preil
Gabriel Preil (Hebrew: גבריאל פרייל; August 21, 1911 – June 5, 1993) was a modern Hebrew poet active in the United States, who wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish. Preil translated Robert Frost and Walt Whitman into Hebrew.
Biography
Gabri ...
.” ''Prooftexts: a Journal of Jewish Literary History.'' Vol. 2, No. 2, May 1982, pp. 147–162.
*"The Latent and the Manifest: Freudianism in ''A Guest for the Night''". ''Prooftexts: a Journal of Jewish Literary History'' (Indiana University Press), Vol. 7, No. 1, Special Issue on
S. Y. Agnon, January 1987, pp. 29–39
*"Zionism: Neurosis or Cure? The "Historical" Drama of
Yehoshua Sobol
Joshua Sobol ( he, יהושע סובול; born 24 August 1939), is an Israeli playwright, writer, and theatre director.
Biography
Joshua Sobol was born in Tel Mond. His mother's family fled the pogroms in Europe in 1922 and his father's family imm ...
", ''Prooftexts: a Journal of Jewish Literary History'' (Indiana University Press), Vol. 7, No. 2, May 1987, pp. 145-162
*"The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language of Realism" by
Robert Alter. ''
Modern Fiction Studies'' (The Johns Hopkins University Press), Vol. 36, No. 4, Winter 1990, pp. 692–693
*"Whose Story Is It, Anyway? Ideology and Psychology in the Representation of the
Shoah
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...
in Israeli Literature" in
Saul Friedländer
Saul Friedländer (; born October 11, 1932) is a Czech-Jewish-born historian and a professor emeritus of history at UCLA.
Biography
Saul Friedländer was born in Prague to a family of German-speaking Jews. He was raised in France and lived thro ...
(ed.), ''Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the "Final Solution"''. Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 223–239.
*"
Feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
under Siege: Israeli Women Writers" in Judith Reesa Baskin (ed.), ''Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing''. Wayne State University Press, 1994, pp. 323–342.
*"Postcolonial Memory, Postmodern Intertextuality:
Anton Shammas
Anton Shammas ( ar, أنطون شماس, he, אנטון שמאס; born 1950), is a Palestinian writer, poet and translator of Arabic, Hebrew and English.
Biography
Anton Shammas was one of six children born to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese ...
's ''Arabesques'' Revisited". ''
PMLA'', Vol. 114, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 373–389
*"From "The Madwoman in the Attic" to "The Women's Room": The American Roots of Israeli Feminism". ''
Israel Studies
''Israel Studies'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering the history, politics, society, and culture of the modern state of Israel. It was established in 1996 S. Ilan Troen as founding editor(Brandeis University). It is publishe ...
'', Vol. 5, No. 1, ''The Americanization of Israel'', Spring 2000, pp. 266–286
*"From Essentialism to Constructivism? The Gender of Peace and War in Gilman,
Woolf,
Freud". ''
Partial Answers: A Journal of Literature and History of Ideas'', January 2004, pp. 113–145.
*"On the Cusp of Christianity: Virgin Sacrifice in
Pseudo-Philo
Pseudo-Philo is the name commonly used for the unknown, anonymous author of ''Biblical Antiquities''. This text is also commonly known today under the Latin title ''Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum'' (Book of Biblical Antiquities), a title that is no ...
and
Amos Oz
Amos Oz ( he, עמוס עוז; born Amos Klausner; 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onw ...
". ''
The Jewish Quarterly Review
''The Jewish Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Jewish studies. It is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Pe ...
'', Vol. 97, No. 3, Summer 2007, pp. 379–415.
*"Deconstructing the Biblical Sources in Israeli Theater: ''Yisurei Iyov'' by
Hanoch Levin
Hanoch Levin ( he, חנוך לוין; December 18, 1943 – August 18, 1999) was an Israeli dramatist, theater director, author and poet, best known for his plays. His absurdist style is often compared to the work of Harold Pinter and Samuel Becke ...
". ''
AJS Review'', 1987, 12, pp 251–277
*"The Land of Issac? From 'Glory of Akedah' to 'Issac's Fear'". ''Shma: A Journal of Jewish Ideas'', September 2011, pp. 16–17.
*"Between Genesis and Sophocles: Biblical Psycho-politics in A. B. Yehoshua's Mr. Mani," ''History and Literature: New Readings of Jewish Texts'' in honor of Arnold Band, eds. William Cutter and David Jacobson, Brown UP, 2002, 451-464.
*"On the Cusp of Christianity: Virgin Sacrifice in Pseudo-Philo and Amos Oz." ''JQR'', 97: 3 (Summer 2007): 379-415.
*"’Not as Sheep Led to Slaughter’?: On Trauma, Selective Memory, and the Making of Historical Consciousness" ''Jewish Social Studies'' (2013), 139-169.
*"Deliverance Denied: Isaac’s Sacrifice in Israeli Arts and Culture - a Jewish-Christian Exchange?" ''The Bible Retold'', eds. Leneman and Walfish (2015), 85-117.
*"‘Flavius on Trial in Mandate Palestine, 1932-1945," in ''Josephus in Modern Jewish Culture'', ed. Andrea Schatz; Giuseppe Veltri's series, Studies in Jewish History and Culture, Brill (2019), 309-329.
*"Women, Blacks, Jews: Overcoming Otherness -- the Impact of Beauvoir, Sartre, and Fanon on Israeli Gender Discourse," in ''Sartre, Jews, and the Other, Vidal Sassoon Studies in Antisemitism, Racism, and Prejudice'', Vol. I, Manuela Consonni and Vivian Liska, eds., de Gruyter (2020), 252-270.
Books
*''Modernism and Cultural Transfer: Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literary Bilingualism. (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press 1986) ''
[Frieden, Ken]
"Review: ''Modernism and Cultural Transfer: Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literary Bilingualism'' by Yael S. Feldman"
''Association of Jewish Studies Review'', Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring, 1989, pp. 74-78
*''Polarity and Parallel: Semantic Patterns in the Medieval Hebrew Qasida'' (published in Hebrew as בין הקטבים לקו המשווה : שירת ימי־הביניים : תבניות סמאנטיות בשיר המורכב). Tel Aviv: Papyrus, 1987
* ''Teaching the Hebrew Bible as Literature in Translation'', co-editor. New York: MLA Publications, 1989.
*''No Room of Their Own: Gender and Nation in Israeli Women's Fiction''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
A National Jewish Book Award Finalist, 1999
ategory: Women Studies
* Published in Hebrew
ranslation by Michal Sapiras ללא חדר משלהן: מגדר ולאומיות ביצירתן של סופרות ישראליות: עמליה כהנא כרמון,שולמית הראבן, שולמית לפיד, רות אלמוג, נתיבה בן-יהודה.
'Lelo heder mishelahen: Migdar uleumiut biyetziratan shel sofrot israeliyot'', Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 2002
Abraham Friedman Memorial Prize, 2003
*''Glory and Agony: Isaac's Sacrifice and National Narrative''. Stanford UP, California: Stanford University Press, 2010.
A National Jewish Book Award Finalist, 2010
''category: Scholarship
References
External links
* Yael S. Feldman
"A Future With No Perhaps" ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', August 10, 1986
Articles by Yael S. Feldman in ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia''
Yael S. Feldmanon
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
*Yael Feldman o
Secularjewishculture.orgBookshelf section.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Yael S.
New York University faculty
Israeli literary critics
Israeli women literary critics
Gender studies academics
Cultural historians
Columbia University alumni
Tel Aviv University alumni
Living people
American literary critics
American women literary critics
Year of birth missing (living people)