Professor: Arie Dubnov
Department: History
Title: Amos Oz’s Two Pens: Literature, politics, and the making of an
Israeli Intellectual
Description: The Israeli novelist and essayist Amos Oz, who died on December
28th, 2018, was an icon of an Israeli cultural elite. Born in mandatory
(pre-statehood) Jerusalem, he became known, especially since the mid-1960s,
the leader of a new generation of native-born Israeli authors and
intellectuals. Exceptionally productive, Oz’s literary output included 40
books, predominantly works of prose (for both children and adults), that has
been translated into more than 30 languages and is internationally acclaimed.
His autobiographical novel, A Tale of Love and Darkness, was instantly
canonized (and even adapted to cinema by Natalie Portman), not only due to
its unique literary qualities but also because it was recognized as a
personal story which is, at the very same time, tells the saga of a nation.
After the 1967 War, Oz has been active in the Israeli peace movement and with
groups and organizations that advocate a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has been a spokesman for the Peace Now
movement since its founding in 1977 and endorsed the activities of the NGO
Breaking the Silence. Oz’s writings, which included numerous works of
non-fiction, showcased this duality. In these writings, he expressed his
unyielding political commitments and distinctive moralist voice. Oz famously
claimed that and again that his literary and political writings belong to
different, separate compartments. Known for writing with a pen, not a
computer, he referred to it using the two pens metaphor: “I have two pens
on my desk. One black and one blue. One I use to tell stories and the other
to tell the government to go to hell – and I never mix them. I have never
written a novel in order to tell the Israelis to get out of the occupied
territories . . . I write novels for the same reasons I dream: I have to
dream. I have no choice. And I have to write novels. I have no choice. Novels
for me have never been a political vehicle. When I want to make a statement,
I write an article.”
A short time after Oz’s passing I was invited by the editors of The Journal
of Israeli History (JIH) to serve as a guest editor of a special issue in
memory of Amos Oz z”l. Distributed by Taylor & Francis, JIH is committed to
bringing cutting-edge scholarship by senior as well as young scholars to an
international audience. In recent years, the journal reflected extremely well
the significant changes that the field of Israel Studies undergone, taking on
transnational, international, and comparative perspectives, engaging with a
variety of methodologies aside from traditional political history, and
conceiving of Israel/Palestine as a historical unit, albeit a deeply divided
one. Following this spirit, I jumpstarted a preliminary research and reached
out to leading scholars from a variety of disciplines (including history,
comparative literature, cultural criticism) who will contribute articles to
the special issue, that pay attention to the historical, cultural and social
analysis of Oz’s oeuvre alongside literary criticism. Tentatively entitled
“Amos Oz’s Two Pens”, the special issue will examine and assess Amos
Oz’s dual role in Israeli culture and society, as an immensely popular
novelist as well as a leading public intellectual. As part of this effort, it
will revisit and problematize the “two pens” metaphor, looking at the way
in which literary sensibilities influenced Oz’s politics and vice versa –
the ways in which he inserted Israeli history and politics into his works of
fiction.
Duties: The Research Assistant (RA) will help Prof. Dubnov prepare a special
issue dedicated to Oz for The Journal of Israeli History (JIH). The main
tasks will include:
1. Reading and commenting on article submissions. The articles are written by
scholars who work in the field of history and/or comparative literature.
2. Checking footnotes and incomplete citations, and, when needed, finding
missing citations in Oz’s translated publications in English.
3. Research, find and reproduce rare materials from the Library of Congress
and/or GWU’s Gelman Library (including, possibly, rare photos).
4. Identify and survey historiography (historical literature) dealing with
Oz’s work and its reception in the English-speaking world.
Required skills:
• Good oral and written communication skills.
• Holding a Library of Congress reader’s card.
• Familiarity with JSTOR and conducting research in online databases.
• Familiarity with Dropbox and Google drive.
Knowledge of Hebrew and/or Israeli culture is preferable but not required.
I’d be extremely happy to find a student interested in this topic who loves
working on the intersection of history and literature. I am open to the
possibility of an independent study as well that will allow the student to
gain extra credit, after writing his/her own research essay on the subject.
Time commitment: Flexible
Credit hour option*: Flexible
Number of openings: 1
Submit Cover Letter/Resume to: dubnov@gwu.edu
*If credit is sought, all registration deadlines and requirements must be
met. Students selected to be research assistants should contact Brianna
Crayton (bcrayton@gwu.edu) whether they intend to pursue credit or not.
