Somber Lust: The Art of Amos Oz (S U N Y Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture)

219 Pages·2002·0.57 MB·English

by  Yair Mazor

Somber Lust:
The Art of Amos Oz
Yair Mazor
State University of New York Press
Somber Lust
SUNY Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture
Sarah Blacher Cohen, Editor
Somber Lust
The Art of Amos Oz
 
Y M
Translated by
Marganit Weinberger-Rotman
     
On the cover: Pablo Picasso, Spanish (worked in France), 1881–1973.
Detail from La Vie, 1903. Oil on canvas, 196.5 (cid:1) 129.2 cm. (cid:2) The
Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund, 1945.24. Used with
permission.
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
(cid:2) 2002 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
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For information, address State University of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production by Judith Block
Marketing by Anne Valentine
Library of Congress Control Number
Mazor, Yair, 1950–
[Lituf ba-afelah. English]
Somber lust : the art of Amos Oz / by Yair Mazor ; translated by
Marganit Weinberger-Rotman.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in modern Jewish literature and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-5307-3 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5308-1 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Oz, Amos—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series.
PJ5054.O9 Z7813 2002
892.4(cid:3)36—dc21
2001032203
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Oh, tho se wor ds o f mi ne,
The sad and sunny nails of my life.
—Yehuda Amichai, Poem no. 10, in Time
(trans. Yair Mazor)
To Yael and Bilha
to my late parents
Rachel and Itzhak
and
to Sarah Rosentzweig
I do love you all very dearly,
and I find comfort in your love.
The Sonnet of the Sleeve of the Landscape
The sleeve of the landscape
Was folded over the arm of the shore.
The cheekbones of the ocean rose in the storm,
Your face burnt in the dark.
You had tickets for Hollywood and Sodom,
A velvet curtain covered the dream.
With a rusty needle you sewed a starlet’s dress
And dead birds adorned your hair like a ribbon.
You wrapped the moon in blue paper
You could only fall down from the cotton clouds.
The mist pierced
The remnants of the light
And when you were gone, you left behind a souvenir: a hair
In the sink.
(Ronny Someck, trans. Marganit Weinberger-Rotman)
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
1. Introduction: Mapping Poetics, Documenting Ideology, and Above
All, Being Motivated by Love 1
2. Since the Jackals’ Lament Carries the Sound of Yearning:
Intertextuality and Deconstruction in “Nomads and Viper” 7
3. The Father, the Son, and the Blowing of the Ill Wind, or Writing
Strindberg from Right to Left 17
4. The Spy Who May Never Come in from the Cold: A Discussion
of To Know a Woman 53
5. At Last, the Secret Double Agent Takes Off His Gloves and
Removes the Mask: A Discussion of A Panther in the Basement 91
6. Essays Are Sometimes Masked Aesthetics: A Discussion of
Under This Blazing Light 131
7. Some Rest at Last. Tracing a Literary Motif: The Motif of the
Picture in A Perfect Peace and Beyond 139
8. Amos Oz Talks about Amos Oz: “Being I, Plus Being Myself”—
An Interview with Hillit Yeshourun 159
Notes 195
vii
viii Contents
Bibliography 199
Index of Literary and Critical Works 203
Index of Authors and Artists 205
And if it is necessary to focus one’s gaze and remain on the
lookout for hours and days, perhaps even for years, well, there
is nothing better to do anyway. Hoping for a recurrence of one
of those rare, unexpected moments when the darkness is mo-
mentarily lifted, and there comes a flicker, a fleeting glimmer,
which one must not miss, one must not be caught off guard.
Because it may signify something that makes us ask ourselves
what else is there. Besides rapture and humility.
—Amos Oz, To Know a Woman
(trans. Yair Mazor)