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Bruchim Haba'im! Welcome to Hebrew language and literature at Carleton.Today, Modern Hebrew is a vitally important language and knowing it will give students a tremendous edge in a wide range of professional fields. These include international relations and diplomacy, international trade, public and private sector business, social work, teaching and research in literature, history, and religion, environmental protection, computer science, mathematics, medicine, and many forms of scientific engineering.
For students who like logic, or a language with many intriguing cultural layers, Modern Hebrew is definitely for them. Hebrew is the language of the Jewish people, but you do not have to be Jewish, or have prior exposure to Hebrew to master it quickly and well from the ground up.
The Hebrew program is directed by Assistant Professor Stacy Beckwith, who teaches the language sequence and literature courses, and designs and participates in all of the extracurricular activities. Professor Beckwith has lived in several settings in Israel, most recently as a Fulbright scholar. She specializes in contemporary Israeli literature and society, drawing on a combined background in Comparative Literature (Israeli and Spanish), Hebrew language, and International Relations. She will work closely with students as they progress in their Hebrew studies and as they integrate them into their wider academic program and experience at Carleton.
In 1999-2000 all of the Hebrew and Middle Eastern literature and culture courses are offered in English, with all readings in translation. In coming years a portion of the course work in some of these classes will be in Modern Hebrew. These courses are designed to introduce students to a range of lifestyles in Israel and neighboring Arab countries, and to Jewish civilization and cultural heritage in a global perspective. |
The introductory sequence integrates listening, speaking, reading and writing in Modern Hebrew at all levels, with steady exposure to a variety of texts by and for native Israeli speakers. Classroom activities involve popular Israeli music, radio programs and advertisements, and films, and will introduce students to different aspects of contemporary Israeli culture and life in the Middle East.
Elementary Modern Hebrew 101-103 (for Hebr. 102 Spring 2000 syllabus, click here.)
Hebrew 101 is intended for students with no previous knowledge of Hebrew. Students with some Hebrew background should consult with Professor Beckwith regarding their language level. Hebrew 101 and 102 introduce the structure of modern Hebrew, focusing on the seven basic verb patterns in present, past, and future, and on how root letters work to expand vocabulary in the form of verbs and nouns. Activities involve Hebrew reading passages, popular Israeli music, radio programs and advertisements, and films.
Intermediate Hebrew 204
In this course students will strengthen their command of modern literary and newspaper Hebrew. Depending on students' interests, we will also focus on building proficiency in Hebrew for international relations, for the sciences, or for other optional fields. As in the elementary sequence, we will continually integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing in Hebrew. Popular Israeli music, radio programs and advertisements, and films, will complement the course's goals and class activities.
Spring 2000:
Hebrew 220: Literatures of the Modern Middle East (for Spring 2000 syllabus, click here.)
*RAD
This course will survey the emergence of prose fiction in Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Palestinian environs, and Israel in the second half of this century, in response to the departure of European powers from the region and, variously, to the throes of industrialization, increased urbanization, and modern nation-formation. We will examine the popular resonances of the Arabic novel as a new, largely Western imported genre vis-à-vis Arabic poetry, and we will compare a selection of novels, short stories, and excerpts, in form and in content, to some Israeli Hebrew counterparts.
Particular topics in the course will include:
Texts include:
From Egypt:
Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk (Winner, Nobel Prize for Literature)
Yusuf Idris, Ring of Burnished Brass (short stories)
Nawal El-Saadawi Woman at Point Zero (Saadawi is Egypt's most outspoken feminist activist author)
From Lebanon:
Elias Khoury, The Journey of Little Ghandi
Hoda Barakat, The Stone of Laughter
From Jordan:
Abdelrahman Munif, Cities of Salt (a novel that is set in a context so like Saudi Arabia before and after oil discovery that it is still banned there.)
Palestinian:
The Land of Stone and Thyme (short stories by prominent authors such as Liana Badr, Riyad Baidas, Emile Habiby)
From Israel:
Ronit Matalon The One Facing Us (an Egyptian Jewish family's global search for individual and collective identities)
Fall 2000
First-Year Seminar: Personal and National Identity in Israeli and Palestinian Literature
*RAD
This course will focus on the literary and cinematic traditions of Israel and different Palestinian communities from 1948 to the present. In the Israeli literature, we will examine modes of representing Palestinian peoples and their interactions with Israeli Jewish citizens, and ways in which the latter grapple with forging personal and national identities in the region; the Arab Middle East. Conversely, the Palestinian works will present us with effots to come to grips with the local presence of Israeli Jews, and to shore up identities that are consonant with "ka-umiyya", a sense of pan-Arab culture, but are also inherently local and distinct. The artists of both genders whose fiction and films we may study include,
Benjamin Tammuz, A. B. Yehoshua, Shulamith Hareven, Yehoshua Kenaz, and film maker Haim Buzaglo (Israeli), and Fadwa Tuqan, Liana Badr, Ghassan Kanafani, Emile Habiby, and film maker Michel Khlefi (Palestinian).
Spring 2001
Hebrew 221: Israeli Literature in the Middle East
We will survey the development of Hebrew fiction in Israel, focusing on how Hebrew authors view their local and surrounding Middle Eastern environs. We will examine how immigrants from European and Arab countries imagined Israel as a nation (1940s - 1950s). We will then study fiction by native Israeli authors, from the 1960's through the 1982 Lebanon War (a cultural catalyst), and the contemporary peace process. Through a selection of Egyptian, Lebanese, and Palestinian fiction, we will extend our understanding of Arab societies and Israeli nationhood. In translation; for advanced Hebrew students a portion of the coursework will be in Hebrew.
Pesek-Zman - Time Out! The
Hebrew Program's Extracurricular Series
M'yuchad l'aviv 2000! (Special for Spring 2000!) New Israeli film arrivals!
With brief historical introductions, follow Israel's first four decades in film:
Tuesdays 7-9pm, Scoville 106
4/11
"They were Ten" (Zionist pioneers in the Yishuv - pre-state Israel)
4/18 - for Middle East Literature students: Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum (Egypt and the Arab world's foremost singer)
4/25
"Hill 24 Doesn't Answer" (Israel's War of Independence, relations among Jews and w/ Palestinians)
5/9
"Siege" (Six Day War of 1967, cultural climate in Israel)
5/16
"Three Days and a Child" (dramatization of short story by A.B. Yehoshua - "Generation of the State" writers and artists focus on individual, rather than collective concerns in the 1970's)
5/23
Summer of Aviya (Memory of the Holocaust in Israeli society)
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Sicha v'Musica - Music and Conversation - Spring times TBA. shortly
1/2 Hour Sicha:
All students are welcome to join in a weekly conversation on Israeli and Middle Eastern issues in English, with Hebrew words introduced. No previous knowledge of Hebrew is necessary and the new Hebrew words are different each Saturday - no weekly vocabulary tests involved!
Sample topics include:
Followed by:
1/2 Hour Musica:
What's the Israeli pop music scene like? What's different about musica mizrachit or yam-tichonit? All students are welcome to find out in half an hour of listening to, understanding, and singing an Israeli pop song of the week. Again, no knowledge of Hebrew required - all lyrics are in Hebrew, transliteration, and translation.
Artists include Gali Atari, Shlomo Artzi, David Broza, Eli Luzon, Tipex, Rita, Yehudit Ravitz, and more!
Sicha v'Musica topic and song proposals are welcome! Reach Professor Beckwith at x7033/ sbeckwit.
Pesek-Zman Film and Televisual Series for Winter 2000 - TBA. shortly
For students interested in an off campus experience, there is a wide array of study options in Israel, and it is possible to create a program that specifically meets a student's interests and career ambitions. In many cases it will also be possible to arrange for non-credit work experiences in Israel before or following a program.
Laird 15D, x7033
M , W, Th 2-4:00 pm.,
F 2:30-4:00 p.m., and by appointment
