A New Sound in Hebrew Poetry: Poetics, Politics, Accent »

Miryam Segal is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures at Queens College, The City University of New York.

With scrupulous attention to landmark poetic texts and to educational and critical discourse in early 20th-century Palestine, Miryam Segal traces the emergence of a new accent to replace the Ashkenazic or European Hebrew accent in which almost all modern Hebrew poetry had been composed until the 1920s. Segal takes into account the broad historical, ideological, and political context of this shift, including the construction of a national language, culture, and literary canon; the crucial role of schools; the influence of Zionism; and the leading role played by women poets in introducing the new accent. This meticulous and sophisticated yet readable study provides surprising new insights into the emergence of modern Hebrew poetry and the revival of the Hebrew language in the Land of Israel.

ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsNote on Transliteration

Introduction1. "Make Your Classroom a Nation-State": Pedagogy and the Rise of the New Accent2. Representing a Nation in Sound: Organic, Hybrid, and Synthetic Hebrews3. "Listening to Her Is Torture": The Menace of a Male Voice in a Woman's Body4. The Runaway Train and the Yiddish Kid: Shlonsky's Double Inscription Epilogue: The Conundrum of the National Poet

Appendix 1. Leonard Lopate's Interview with Gene Simmons, New York and Company, WNYC Radio, December 12, 2001Appendix 2. "Train" ["Rakevet"]. Published in the literary supplement to Davar 1, no. 15, January 8, 1926.NotesBibliographyIndex