Even Bohan as a Moment of Transition in the Discursive Development of the Maqama

Abstract

Written in the tradition of the Maqama, Even Bohan (1322) by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos is central to the productive process or narrative forms as it has evolved during the middle ages. Rather than being a sub‐text enclosed within its own signifying performance, within the biblical intertext, the Even Bohan manifests the discursive shifts that took place with the coming of age of neoclassical discourse. This maqama shows that the speaking subject is no more a mediator within the divine plan but rather the proprietor of his own speech, self‐mandated to carry his own discursive operation.