David Shahar

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David Shahar

David Shahar ( Hebrew דוד שחר; born June 17, 1926 in Jerusalem , Palestine (League of Nations mandate) ; died April 2, 1997 in Paris ) was an Israeli writer.

life and work

David Shahar was born in Jerusalem in 1926; part of his family had previously resided in Jerusalem for four generations. He spent his childhood in the Me'a She'arim district of Jerusalem , which is inhabited by strictly religious Jews . He studied psychology and Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Shahar wrote novels, short stories and a youth book. For many years he was chairman of the Hebrew Writers' Association . Since 1956 he was with the historian Shulamith Shaharmarried. In 1963, at the age of 37, he left Israel for the first time and lived in Paris for two years. In his later years he lived partly in Jerusalem and Paris. As a writer, he had success in both Israel and France.

The picaresque and the picaresque novel, a picaresque novel , is a literary form that was used in the time period from the introduction in the 1948 founding of Israel in Hebrew literature. One of the first works of this literary genre was Shahar's novel Yerach Ha-Dvash Ve-Ha-Zahav (Hebrew) from 1959. Its main character is Schmulik, who confronts a society as a deceiver and knows how to use it, which is described as cynical, corrupt and provincial becomes. The literary historian Gershon Shaked compares Shmulik with Thomas Mann's novel character Felix Krull , whom he described as the archetype of the modern Picaro referred.

Gershon Shaked characterizes Shahar as "an author inclined towards the mystical " in terms of narrative means . Shahar's main work is the eight-volume cycle of novels The Palace of Broken Vessels (Hebrew: Heikhal ha-Kelim ha-Shevurim ), on which he worked for about 30 years from the late 1960s and which also belongs to the Picaresque novel. In it he depicts a large number of people who lived in the area of ​​the Jerusalem district of Geula from the Ottoman period to the 1970s. Shahar's literary style combines satirical elements, dream-like scenes, comic episodes and allusions to the mysticism of Kabbalah . Another stylistic element is that the naive point of view of a ten-year-old boy is interlaced with the perspective of an adult. In terms of the complex narrative technique and the social concept, Shahar's work has similarities with the seven-part novel In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust .

Awards (selection)

  • 1969, 1978 and 1991: Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Writers
  • 1973: Agnon Prize
  • 1981: Prix Medicis (France) in the foreign literature category for the novel Le Jour de la comtesse , the third volume of the novel cycle
  • 1984 Bialik Prize
  • 1986: Appointment as Commander of the French Order of the Arts et des Lettres
  • 1987: Neuman Prize
  • 1997: President's Prize

Works in German translation

  • A summer on Prophetenstrasse . From d. Franz. Von Eva Moldenhauer , Athenäum Verlag , Königstein im Taunus 1984
  • His Majesty's agent . Athenäum Verlag, Königstein im Taunus 1984
  • The journey to Ur in Chaldea . Novel. From d. Franz. Von Eva Moldenhauer, Athenäum Verlag, Königstein im Taunus 1985

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c David Shahar at ITHL
  2. ↑ a b Madeleine Neige: Shahar, David (French)
  3. ^ Gershon Shaked: History of Modern Hebrew Literature, p. 256
  4. ↑ Gershon Shaked: History of Modern Hebrew Literature, p. 257
  5. ^ Gershon Shaked: History of Modern Hebrew Literature, p. 331
  6. ↑ In German translation, only Volume 1 ( A Summer in Prophet Street ) and Volume 2 ( The Journey to Ur in Chaldäa ) have been published.
  7. ↑ Shahar, David at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
  8. ^ Johanna Kaplan: Strange lights in ancient streets. The New York Times , May 21, 1989, accessed November 27, 2017 . (Review of Volume 1 and 2)
  9. ^ Baruch Link: The Israeli Proust. Los Angeles Times , January 1, 1989, accessed November 27, 2017 . (Review of Volume 1 and 2)
  10. ^ Gershon Shaked: History of Modern Hebrew Literature, p. 334
  11. ^ Prix ​​Medicis: Littérature étrangère Accessed November 27, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Shahar, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shachar, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Jerusalem
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1997
Place of death Paris