Full Description
The year 1492 has long divided the study of Sephardic culture into two distinct periods, before and after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. David A. Wacks examines the works of Sephardic writers from the 13th to the 16th centuries and shows that this literature was shaped by two interwoven experiences of diaspora: first from the Biblical homeland Zion and later from the ancestral hostland, Sefarad. Jewish in Spain and Spanish abroad, these writers negotiated Jewish, Spanish, and diasporic idioms to produce a uniquely Sephardic perspective. Wacks brings Diaspora Studies into dialogue with medieval and early modern Sephardic literature for the first time.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Diaspora Studies for Sephardic Culture
2. Allegory and Romance in Diaspora: Jacob ben Elazar's Book of Tales
3. Poetry in Diaspora: From al-Andalus to Provence and back to Castile
4. The Anxiety of Vernacularization: Shem Tov ben Isaac ibn Ardutiel de Carrión's Proverbios morales and Debate between the Pen and the Scissors
5. Diaspora as Tragicomedy: Vidal Benvenist's Efer and Dina
6. Empire and Diaspora: Solomon ibn Verga's Shevet Yehudah and Joseph Karo's Magid Meisharim
7. Reading Amadís in Constantinople: Spanish Fiction in the Key of Diaspora
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index
