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Cultural Memory and Tradition |
| Reprinted from the Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin, Winter 2001 (with changes in orthography to HTML standards). Copyright 2001 by the Middle East Studies Association of North America |
| Transmitting Jewish Traditions: Orality, Textuality, and Cultural
Diffusion, edited by Yaakov Elman and Israel Gershoni. (University of Pennsylvania Studies in Jewish Culture and Society) 368 pages, index. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. $35.00 (Cloth)
ISBN 0-300-08198-7 Charting Memory: Recalling Medieval Spain, edited by Stacy N. Beckwith. (Hispanic Issues, 21) 415 pages, glossary, index. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 2000. $85.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-8153-3325-0 In spite of their differing approaches, these collections of essays illustrate the effectiveness of approaching cultural memory from either a predominantly historicized, diachronic format (Transmitting Jewish Tradition), or a selective reconstruction based primarily on contemporary recollections (Charting Memory). By far the more specialized of the two books, Transmitting Jewish Traditions focuses on orality’s role in the articulation and transmission of biblical exegeses, rabbinic, and literary material. Although studies on late antiquity and the Middle Ages predominate, three concluding articles deal with contemporary textual transmission of secular material—literary translation (Jeffrey Grossman), the Kinnus Project (Israel Bartel) and reader reception (Israel Gershoni). Martin Jaffee articulates how the dialectic between oral and written transmission in the Jerusalem Talmud reflects Greco-Roman rhetorical proactive of the period. This oral/written dichotomy is also crucial to Paul Mandel’s argument for the transmission of Lamentations Rabbati from Palestine to Babylonia. Daphna Ephrat and Yhaakov Elman, in their joint article, draw the contrast between yeshiva and Islamic madrasa in the institutions’ practices of textual transmission and authentication. Malachi Beit-Arié’s contribution also takes up the question of reproducing and authenticating texts in the medieval period, while Marc Saperstian’s analysis of the rhetorical features of a sermon is the sole contribution to focus on the Renaissance. A pair of articles by Moche Idel and Elliot Wolfson engages the function of orality in mysticism. Apart from Transmitting Jewish Traditions’ appeal to those with interests in rabbinical material, Kabbalah, and reader-reception, the studies provide a superb, specialized contribution to the field of orality beyond the basic groundwork established by such figures as Milman Parry, Albert Bates Lord, and Walter Ong. Charting Memory’s multidisciplinary approach to collective memory partially overlaps the focus on orality of Transmitting Jewish Traditions (for example, Manuel Fontes’ study of oral balladry and prayer). Charting Memory, though, focuses on present-day recollections of medieval Muslim and Jewish cultures in the Iberian Peninsula. In an introduction that adds historical cohesiveness to the variety of fields represented by the essays, Beckwith provides a balanced appraisal of the frequently misappropriated concept of multicultural harmony (convivencia) in medieval Iberia. Dwight Reynolds’ incisive study of the multifaceted conceptions of and performance practices for Andalusian music typifies Charting Memory’s emphasis on contemporary, and at times selective, recall of the past. Other fields represented are literature (Libby Garshowitz/Beckwith, Sultana Wahnón, and Reuven Snir), anthropology and sociology (Judith R. Cohen, Beebe Bahrami, and Jack Glazier), architecture (Hsain Ilahiane), and onomastics (Shmuel Refael). As a contribution to the growing, yet not fully-developed body of scholarship on the admixture of cultures in medieval Iberia, the collection will prove valuable for the general Hispanist, as well as for the more specialized interests of Hebraists and Arabists. |
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