Bialik, the Hebrew Bible and the Literature of Nationalism

This book explores the life and poetry of Chaim Nachman Bialik (1873-1934) in the context of European national literature between the French Revolution and World War I, showing how he helped create a modern Hebrew national culture, spurring the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language.

David Aberbach is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Studies at McGill University, Montreal, and Honorary Visiting Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford. His books include Surviving Trauma: Loss, Literature, and Psychoanalysis (1989); Charisma in Politics, Religion and the Media (1996); National Poetry, Empires and War (2016); and Nationalism, War and Jewish Education (2018).

Introduction: Bialik and National Poetry 1789-1914 1. The Jews under Tsarist Rule: Between Hope and Despair 2. Bialik and National Poetry in the Tsarist Empire 3. Bialik, Nationalism and the Hebrew Bible 4. From the Bible to Bialik: Poetry of Zion 5. Between the Hebraic and the Greek: Bialik and Tchernichowsky 6. Bialik, Aggadah and Jewish National Identity 7. Anti-Semitism and Hebrew Poetry: 1881-1948 8. Bialik, Wordsworth and the Romantic Agony 9. Bialik and Freud: Childhood Screen Memories 10. Childlessness and the Waste Land: Bialik and T.S. Eliot 11. The Artist as Nation-Builder: Bialik and Yeats Conclusion: Damaged Archangels and Charismatic National Poets