"A stranger at home": delayed return in a novella and in a short story by Agnon : a comparative study
This article touches upon the theme of delayed return: a familiar literary theme that is manifested in different languages, cultures, and periods; it usually involves a man returning to his home and wife after a prolonged absence during which he was presumed dead, while his wife's circumstances...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Pennsylvania Press
[2013]
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2013, Volume: 37, Issue: 2, Pages: 371-386 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
ʿAgnon, Shemuʾel Yosef 1888-1970
/ Literary genre
/ Novella
/ Short story
/ Simile
B Literature / Motif B Fate / Death / Traveler |
| IxTheo Classification: | BH Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article touches upon the theme of delayed return: a familiar literary theme that is manifested in different languages, cultures, and periods; it usually involves a man returning to his home and wife after a prolonged absence during which he was presumed dead, while his wife's circumstances radically changed. S.Y. Agnon published two well-known works on the subject: “And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight” (1912) and “Fernheim” (1949), which are the object of this study. This article approaches these two works in a comparative context from a genre analysis—a novella versus a short story—arguing that the subject matter sometimes dictates the choice of genre. Thus, the two delayed returns differ markedly. The novella form is well-suited to “And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight” which places the devout protagonist, upon his delayed return, in a tragic dilemma, while Fernheim's is not a delayed return in the exemplary-archetypal sense. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0364009413000305 |