The Challenges of Writing a Literary History of Early Modernist Hebrew Fiction: Gershon Shaked and Beyond

Abstract

This article deals with the challenges of writing historiography of modernist Hebrew fiction in the first three decades of the twentieth century in Europe. It examines the immense achievements of the late Gershon Shaked, who gave us the most recent and most comprehensive historiography of Hebrew fiction. The article analyzes the ideological, methodological, theoretical, and personal foundations of Shaked's historiographic understanding, and how they impact the ways in which he constructs his narrative. Finally, the article suggests some ways to move beyond Shaked's narrative; ways that might shed a new light on the literature written during the period under discussion.