Call for Papers; "Authorship in the History of Jewish Textual Culture"

(from H-Judaic)


From: Amit Assis [mailto:amit@assis.co.il]
Sent: Tue 2/1/2011 8:09 AM
Subject: Re: CFP - Authorship in the History of Jewish Textual Culture

CFP - Authorship in the History of Jewish Textual Culture

We hereby call for papers on the subject of authorship in Jewish and Hebrew
textual cultures, for a volume of studies published by the Sapir Forum for
the Discussion and Research of Culture. The purpose of the volume is to go
beyond the issue of the identity of the real author and move towards a
meta-cultural discussion of the transformation of the conception of the
author and its implementations in various Jewish cultures throughout the
ages. Beyond an examination of the formal characteristics of the text, we
expect the issue of authorship to raise other, in-depth questions related to
the various Jewish texts and cultures such as:

- Is the author perceived as the creator of the text? And if not - who is
perceived as its author?
- How is the presence of the narrator expressed in the text? What is the
role of the addressee in the creation of the text?
- Does the text have one author or many? What is the relationship between
the various partners creating the text?
- What is the status of 'the source of inspiration', the editor, the
compiler, the copier, the translator and the like, who stand behind the
text?
- How does authorship relate to the technological, social and
institutional practices of a text's composition, transition and reception?
- What is the role of the author in creating the normative status of the
text?
- What is the relationship between the actual author and the fictitious
one (in pseudo-epigraphy, for example)?
- How is the author a model for the national subject (individual or
collective)?
- What are the relations between the human author of the text and the
divine "Author" (prophecy, incarnation, inspiration)?
- How is the function of the author related to non-textual cultural
functions?
- What is the theological, political, ideological, etc. significance of
the manner of appearance of the author in the given field of discourse?

The papers can address these questions or similar ones, while dealing
with a relatively large segment of the Jewish and Hebrew textual culture
such as: the Bible, *Midrash*, Gaonic literature, renaissance poetry, and
so on, or they can refer to a narrower definition such as: *Rabbi
Ishmael's Mekhilta*, the *Tikkunei Zohar*, the political journalism in "*
Ha'Shiloah*", etc. Papers may be written in Hebrew or English. Papers
that will be chosen by the editorial board will undergo a professional
reading by a reviewer from the paper's field, and they will be translated so
that the volume will appear in both languages. The papers, which will not be
longer than 9000 words, must include a textual reading alongside fundamental
conclusions as to the historical, theoretical, literary, ideological, or
theological aspects. These can refer to the formal aspects of the presence
of the narrator in the text as well as to more fundamental questions such as
the manner in which the perception of the author in the text reflects
broader basic conceptions related to the function of "the Author" and the
institute of authorship in the given historical period and culture.

Please send a proposal no longer than 600 words, detailing the subject of
the paper, the fields of research from which it is written, its hypotheses,
as well as an initial bibliography, no later than May 1st, 2011. The
papers should be ready no later than January 1st, 2012.
Itamar Brenner itamar.brenner@gmail.com
Amit Assis amit@assis.co.il