Other Faces: The Visual Uncanny in the Works of S. Y. Agnon

S. Y. Agnon's literary world is a site of struggle between the constructive forces and dark impulses unleashed by modernity, and the lingering presence of revelation and religious faith. Agnon forged a unique literary language that unsettles the distinction between the sacred and the profane, creating a persistent tension between estrangement and longing for the symbolic universe of Jewish tradition. His writing challenges boundaries between space and language, image and meaning, while exposing the profound contradictions at the heart of the Zionist project.

This seminar explores the visual uncanny that recurs throughout Agnon's fiction - the anxiety of writing, the threatening doppelganger, and the curse of letters—as well as the various forms of the unconscious that haunt his characters. We will examine Agnon's distinctive use of biblical Hebrew, Midrash, Hasidic thought, and Kabbalah, alongside his intellectual affinities with Franz Kafka and other modernist writers. Particular attention will be given to the work of memory unfolding within his narratives and to the ways in which holiness migrates into the objects and material culture of everyday life.