The influence of European writers on the Hebrew writer, S.Y. Agnon

Abstract

In concluding a speech given at a memorial tribute to S.Y. Agnon, Professor Dr. S. D. Gottein stated: In conclusion, as rightly expressed in the bestowal of the Nobel Prize, Agnon is the representative Hebrew writer of our age. Since Biblical times there has not been in the Hebrew language a corpus of narrative prose of the magnitude , dignity, and meaningfulness as that of Agnon's creation. He has done for Hebrew prose what Yehuda Halevy has achieved in religious poetry. Halevy wrote in the forms and the spirits of the 12th century. Agnon expressed the mood and the refinement of the 20th century. But both are the mouthpieces of genuine and integral Judaism .... Yehuda Halevy in religious poetry and Shmuel Yosef Agnon in narrative prose are the most genuine and the most perfect artistic exponents of post-Biblical Judaism.