Nekod Singer in Russian and Hebrew: Neoeclecticism and beyond

abstract

The multifaceted oeuvre of Nekod Singer, who writes in Israel in Russian and in Hebrew, is notable for its bilingualism and self-translation. Singer's integration of the two languages reflects his cultural-aesthetic agenda, which fluctuates between neoeclecticism and neomodernism, as well as between two centers of gravity—post-Soviet Russian and multilingual Israeli literature. This article discusses Singer's writing with an emphasis on his bilingualism and self-translation.

Keywords:

• Bilingualism
• contemporary Hebrew literature
• contemporary Russian literature
• Israeli literature
• self-translation
• Nekod Singer
• translation

Notes on contributor

Roman Katsman is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Literature of the Jewish People at Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of books and articles on modern Hebrew and Russian literatures. His most recent works include “A Small Prophecy: Sincerity and Rhetoric in Agnon's Work” (in Hebrew) and a book on alternative history, Literature, History, Choice. Two new books, about laughter in Agnon and about Russian-language literature in Israeli, are forthcoming.

Notes

1. Singer's paintings and installations, as well as his translations from Hebrew into Russian (he has translated David Shahar's and David Grossman's novels, as well as articles from the prestate Hebrew press from more than a century ago) lie beyond the scope of this essay but are worthy of separate treatment.

2. Translations from N. Singer's books hereafter by Yan Mazor (authorized by the author).

3. To mention just a few: “languages in contact” (Uriel Weinreich) and “interlanguage” (Larry Selinker) and terms like “symbiotic polysystem” (Itamar Even-Zohar), “polylinguism” (Benjamin Harshav), “interculture” (Anthony Pym), “stereoscopic reading” (Marilyn Gaddis Rose), and “colingual effect” (Hokenson and Munson).

4. Bilingualism and its literature are taken as given in current discussions of emigration, global diasporas (Robin Cohen), transnational neodiasporism (Khachig Tölölyan), and new cosmopolitanism—one that is ambivalent, complex, indefinite, and unexpected (Ulrich Beck).

5. Issues 1 through 5, 1995, were produced along with a third editor (and publisher), Yisrael Maler.

6. In 1994–95, they edited the Russian-language journal I.O., and beginning in 1997, they edited six issues of the Russian-language children's periodical Tochka, tochka, zapiataia.

7. Nekod Singer has regularly published stories and articles on the Russian-Jewish literary Web site booknik.ru, where he also authors a column called “In Those Days, in Our Times: What Hebrew Newspapers Wrote about a Hundred Years Ago” and a column on Jerusalem—holidays, exhibitions, symbolism, and historical sites (often accompanied by Gali-Dana Singer's photographs). A number of these stories were later included in his novel Chernoviki Ierusalima (Jerusalem Drafts). He has also published in the Web/printed Russian-language Jewish journal Lehaim. Several of his stories are also included in volumes of the fantasy anthology Russkie inorodnye skazki (Russian Extra-Folk Tales) and in Chainaia kniga (The Tea Book), edited by Max Frey (a pseudonym for Svetlana Martynchik and Igor Steopin, as well as the collective title for their literary projects and numerous publications). A chapter from Bilety v kasse (Tickets at the Box Office) was included in the Hebrew anthology Ruhot Ref'aim shel Yisrael (Israeli Ghosts, 2003). The Singers have also published in the avant-garde Russian-language Israeli journal Solnechnoe spletenie, which came out from 1997 to 2004 under the editorship of Mikhail Weisskopf and Evgeny Soshkin. Gali-Dana Singer's works (and translations) in Russian were published also in the journal Vozdukh and in Hebrew—in the journals Alpaim, Gag, Dimuy, Carmel, Rehov, Helikon, Mikarov, Khadarim, and Shvo.

8. In the latest, 24th issue of Dvoetochie (Spring 2015), Gali-Dana and Nekod Singer proclaimed in their preface “Proshchanye, zapreshchayushchee skorb” (“Farewell That Forbids Mourning”) that they were going to end the publication of the journal.

9. In completely different style, Dina Rubina has gone a similar way: from destroyed Tashkent to built Jerusalem, dispersed in a dozen cities-drafts.

10. In Russian, Obitayemyi Ostrow 3, 1991; in Hebrew, Dimuy 5–6, 1992; Ev 1, 1993.

11. The same seems to be true concerning Gali-Dana Singer's poetry. See Mendelson-Maoz 197–99.

12. A concept of dissipative structure is borrowed from Ilya Prigogine's nonlinear thermodynamics (Prigogin and Stengers, 66 and following).

13. In his novel Jerusalem Drafts, Singer cites these as names of the narrator's relatives who appear as characters in his story (N. Singer, Chernoviki Ierusalima 142).

14. The same is true of Singer's essays, which appear in both Russian and Hebrew in Nekudataim. Furthermore, the Russian texts in this periodical (such as Jerusalem Drafts) also display Hebrew diglossia. Compare, for example: N. Singer, “Mizrakh karov—Mizrakh Rakhok” and “Blizhnij vostok—Dalnij vostok.”

15. For the authorized English translation, see http://www.jewishfiction.net/index.php/publisher/articleview/frmArt-icleID/263

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roman Katsman

Roman Katsman is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Literature of the Jewish People at Bar-Ilan University. He is the author of books and articles on modern Hebrew and Russian literatures. His most recent works include “A Small Prophecy: Sincerity and Rhetoric in Agnon's Work” (in Hebrew) and a book on alternative history, Literature, History, Choice. Two new books, about laughter in Agnon and about Russian-language literature in Israeli, are forthcoming.