A Permanent Beginning : R. Nachman of Braslav and Jewish Literary Modernity

Name: A Permanent Beginning : R. Nachman of Braslav and Jewish Literary Modernity
Brand: State University of New York Press

State University of New York Press

Further Details\n\nTitle: A Permanent Beginning\nCondition: New\nDescription: \nSituates a Hasidic master in the context of his time, demonstrating his formative influence on Jewish literary modernity.\nThe Hasidic leader R. Nachman of Braslav (1772\u20131810) has held a place in the Jewish popular imagination for more than two centuries. Some see him as the (self-proclaimed) Messiah, others as the forerunner of modern Jewish literature. Existing studies struggle between these dueling readings, largely ignoring questions of aesthetics and politics in his work. A Permanent Beginning lays out a new paradigm for understanding R. Nachman's thought and writing, and, with them, the beginnings of Jewish literary modernity. Yitzhak Lewis examines the connections between imperial modernization processes in Eastern Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century and the emergence of \""modern literature\"" in the storytelling of R. Nachman. Reading his tales and teachings alongside the social, lega.