International Conference on the Life and Work of Israeli
Author Amos Oz
University of Pennsylvania, USA
University of Pennsylvania
Middle East Center
Jewish Studies Program
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Heksherim Center
Unless otherwise noted, panels will be conducted
in English.
Click here for registration information
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk
6:00-7:45 – Wine and Cheese Welcome Reception (by invitation)
Welcome & introduction:
Al Filreis, University of Pennsylvania
Readings from A Tale of Love and Darkness: Amos
Oz (Hebrew),
Al Filreis (English)
Monday, October 18, 2004
Penn Humanities Forum, 3619 Locust Walk
8:30-9:00 – Breakfast
9:00-9:30 – Greetings
Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania
Sam Preston, Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, University
of Pennsylvania
Yigal Schwartz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Avishai Braverman, President, Ben Gurion University of the
Negev
9:30-10:30 - Introductory Panel (I)
Chair: Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania
- Gershon Shaked, The Hebrew University
of Jerusalem:
Oz’s Autobiography in the Context of His Contemporaries’
Autobiographies
- Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley:
The Calling of the Writer in A Tale of Love and Darkness
10:30-11:00 – Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 – Introductory Panel (II)
Chair: David Ruderman, Center for Advanced Judaic Studies
(CAJS), University of Pennsylvania
- Arnold Band, University of California, Los Angeles:
From Klausner to Oz and Back
- Avraham Balaban, University of Florida:
Between Mother and Father or Between Oedipus and Jesus: Revisiting The Hill of the Evil Counsel
- Nurit Gertz, Open University/CAJS:
Amos Oz: A Personal Perspective
12:30-1:00 – Questions & Discussion for Panels I and II
1:00-2:00 – Lunch (by invitation)
2:00-3:00 – Inner
Voices, External Speech (III) – (Hebrew)
Chair: Ruth Kartun-Bloom, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Nitza Ben–Dov, University of
Haifa:
Absence, Eros and Passion in the Works of Oz
- Vered Shemtov, Stanford University:
The Same Sea as a Polyphonic Novel
- Questions and Discussion
3:00-5:00 – Tour of University of Pennsylvania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (by
invitation)
3260 South Street
Tuesday, October 19,
2004
Penn Humanities Forum, 3619 Locust Walk
8:30-9:00 – Breakfast
9:00-10:30 – History, Myth, Midrash
(IV)
Chair: Heather Sharkey, University of Pennsylvania
- Yael
Feldman, New York University:
A Tale of Dream and Darkness: The Early Version or How Old Can A Modern Midrash Be?
- Rachel Brenner, University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Denial of History and the Return of the Repressed in My Michael
- Glenda Abramson, Oxford University:
Heredity and Freedom: The Ghosts in Strange Fire
- Questions and discussion
10:30-11:00 – Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 –
Time, Space, Politics, and Ideology (V)
Co-Chairs: Robert Vitalis and Beth Wenger, University of
Pennsylvania
- Ian Lustick, University of Pennsylvania:
Here and There: Then and Now - Nissim Calderon, Ben Gurion University of the
Negev:
Amos Oz and the Israeli “Wane of Matter” - Yael Zerubavel, Rutgers University:
Space and Otherness in the Fiction of Oz - Questions and Discussion
12:30-1:45 – Lunch (by invitation)
Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk
2:00-3:00 – Jerusalem and
the Reflections of the Psyche (VI) – (Hebrew)
Chair: Allen Mintz, The Jewish Theological Seminary/CAJS
- Haim Be’er, Ben Gurion University of the
Negev:
Jerusalem as a Metaphor in My Michael and in A Tale of Love and Darkness - Maayan Harel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev:
Patterns of Repetition in The Hill of the Evil Counsel - Questions and Discussion
6:00-7:15 – Bodek Lounge, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street
The Jerome B. Apfel Lecture
Chair: Joseph
Farrell, Associate Dean of Arts and Letters, University
of Pennsylvania.
Amos Oz will speak:
On Love and Darkness
Readings from A Tale of Love and Darkness: Amos Oz (Hebrew), Kathryn Hellerstein (English).
Nicholas de Lange, English Translator of A Tale of Love and Darkness. On Translating Oz.
7:15-7:40 – Book
Signing by Amos Oz
Book Sale by Penn Book Center
All Forms of Payment Accepted
7:40-9:00 – Dinner (by
invitation)
Toasts: Roger Allen, University of Pennsylvania
Yiftach Dekel, Executive Director, Keter Publishing
House
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Penn Humanities Forum, 3619 Locust Walk
8:30-9:00 – Breakfast
9:00-10:00 – The Personal and the National (VII)
Chair: Malka Shaked, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Anita Shapira, Tel Aviv University/CAJS: A Tale of Love and Darkness as a Post-Post-Zionist Novel
- Yigal Schwartz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev: A Personal Death, the Public Space and the Nation’s Renaissance (Hebrew)
10:15-10:45 – Presentation of Gift to Amos Oz, Jeff Tigay, University of Pennsylvania
12:00 – Lunch at CAJS (by invitation)
420 Walnut Street
Sponsors:
The Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation
Jerome B. Apfel Colloquium in Jewish Life and Literature
Heksherim, The Research Center for Jewish and Israeli
Literature and Culture, Ben Gurion University of
The Negev
Hillel, University of Pennsylvania
Jewish Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania
Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania
University Research Foundation, University of Pennsylvania
We also gratefully acknowledge the support of Avram Hornik, Loie Brasserie and Bar, 128 S. 19th Street, Philadelphia; Israeli Consulate of Philadelphia; Ben Gurion University of the Negev: Faculty of Humanities and Social Science; Drechsler family; Israeli Consulate of Philadelphia; Jewish Federation of Philadelphia; Keter Publishing House; University of Pennsylvania: Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, The Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Kelly Writers House, Penn Humanities Forum, The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology: Barry Eichler, Associate Curator
Organizers:
Nili Gold, University of Pennsylvania &
Yigal Schwartz, Ben Gurion University of the Negev