The American Oz: Notes on translation and reception

ABSTRACT

This article offers a discussion of Amos Oz’s early translation and reception history in the American literary scene. The article pays particular attention to Oz’s double capacity as novelist and political commentator, and how it may have contributed to the unique role quickly assigned to him in American public and intellectual discourse. Against the backdrop of the formative social and political context of the 1970s, the article suggests some defining traits of the transformation, and ultimately the reduction, of the Israeli Oz into the American Oz. Oz’s works were largely perceived through an allegorical-political framework or pigeonholed as portrayals of the national psyche, while Oz himself was assigned the role of spokesman for the Israeli Left. Oz was actively involved in shaping his political persona and nonfiction repertoire in English, mainly through his (non-)selection of essays for translation, and his interviews and topical commentary in the American press. These, the article shows, were sometimes moderated for the English-speaking audience, diluting the more forceful political criticism the novelist had presented to his Hebrew readers, and abating the description of aspects of Israeli reality that drew his ire.

KEYWORDS:

• Amos Oz
• American reception
• Israeli literature
• Hebrew-English translation
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Israeli-American Jewish relations

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Arie Dubnov, the editor of this special issue, and the two anonymous reviewers, for their useful and constructive comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For a list of the forty-six countries where Oz’s translations were published, and the various languages in which each of his books was published, see the Amos Oz Archive: https://in.bgu.ac.il/heksherim/Archives/Pages/amos-oz-archive.aspx. Accessed: November 26, 2020.

2. Halevi-Wise and Gottesman, “Hebrew Literature in the ‘World Republic of Letters’.”

3. Mintz, Translating Israel; Asscher, Reading Israel, Reading America.

4. Radutsky, “Nigun rusi”; Achlama, “Mehapsim shidukh”; Braster, “Ketsev ha-tirgum.” See also Nicholas de Lange’s eulogistic piece, “Amos Oz’s reading voice was beautiful. Translating his books was a marvellously fulfilling experience” in the Jewish Chronicle, January 3, 2019. https://www.thejc.com/culture/features/amos-oz-s-reading-voice-was-beautiful-1.477933. De Lange touches shortly on his experience as Oz’s regular translator into English. Accessed: November 30, 2020.

5. Griswold, “The Fabrication of Meaning”; Liebes and Katz, The Export of Meaning.

6. Wolf, “Emergence of a sociology of translation”; Snell-Hornby, “The turns of Translation Studies.”

7. Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility, 266.

8. Childress and Friedkin, “Cultural Reception and Production,” 50.

9. Lefevere, “Mother Courage’s Cucumbers,” 216.

10. Ibid., 205.

11. Ibid., 216.

12. My Michael was Oz’s third book in Hebrew. The short-lived paperback publisher Lancer Books (1961–1973) published a variety of genres, but specialized in science fiction and fantasy. Its two founders were Walter Zacharius and Irwin Stein. Zacharius was an active member of several Jewish organizations, and served as chair of the United Jewish Appeal.

13. One of the two novellas in Unto Death, “Crusade,” first appeared in the UK-based Jewish Quarterly and American Commentary in 1971. It was in fact the first work of Oz de Lange translated.

14. Oz’s first novel in Hebrew (1966), Makom aher (Elsewhere, Perhaps), appeared in English in 1973. The fact the American publisher caught up with his earlier Be-arzot ha-tan (Where the Jackals Howl, 1965) only in 1981 stems from the American commercial aversion to short story collections.

15. As explained by Mintz, sales figures are unattainable as they are regarded as proprietary information, and publishers are not willing to disclose them for various reasons. Mintz, Translating Israel, 249.

16. Amit, “Yitsu shel tarbut Yisraelit,” 32–33.

17. Alter, “New Israeli Fiction.” The article also discusses A. B. Yehoshua’s rise on the Israeli literary scene with his first two volumes of short stories.

18. Robert Alter, “An Apolitical Israeli,” New York Times, May 21, 1972, BR5; Richard Locke, “An Israeli Madame Bovary,” New York Times, May 25, 1972, 43; Thomas R. Edwards, “News from Elsewhere,” New York Review of Books, October 5, 1972; Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Books of the Times: Amos Oz’s Initial Promise,” New York Times, November 14, 1973, 43; Paul Zweig, “Life and Sex in a Kibbutz and on a Campus,” New York Times, November 18, 1973, 418; Alfred Kazin, “Beyond the Promised Land,” Saturday Review, November 2, 1974, 38; Joseph McElroy, “Unto Death,” New York Times, October 26, 1975, BR4; Morris Dickstein, “In the Beginning,” New York Times, May 28, 1978, BR2; John Bayley, “Pioneers and Phantoms”, New York Review of Books, July 20, 1978; Anatole Broyard, “Books: People in Crises,” New York Times, May 22, 1981, C24.

19. New York Times Book Review, “A selection of recent titles,” June 4, 1972, 12; “1973: A selection of noteworthy titles”, December 2, 1973, 525; “1974: A selection of noteworthy titles”, December 1, 1974, 459.

20. Amit, “Yitsu shel tarbut Yisraelit,” 219–220. Amit includes other English-speaking countries in his count, but they account for a relatively small number of the reviews and do not change the big picture.

21. Alter, “The Rise and the Rise.”

22. De Lange, “Amos Oz’s reading voice was beautiful.” The collaboration is noted on the front matter of some of the books.

23. Ruby Namdar, “The Wizard of Words and the Baggy Monster: Rereading Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2020.

24. Translators include Maurie Goldberg-Bartura, Penelope Farmer, Barbara Harshav, and Sondra Silverston. Apart from Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, publishers include Harper & Row, Vintage, Cambridge University Press, and Princeton University Press. Most of these books, too, appeared in several printings.

25. Personal correspondence with Nicholas de Lange, October 23, 2020. See also: “Amos Oz” in Ohio State University’s online Modern Hebrew Literature: A Bio-bibliographical lexicon, which specifies the source language for many of the translations: https://library.osu.edu/projects/hebrew-lexicon/00397.php. Accessed: November 30, 2020. For a useful discussion of the circulation of “minor” literatures and languages in world literature, see: Heilbron, “Towards a Sociology of Translation”; Brems et al, “The Transnational Trajectories of Dutch Literature as a Minor Literature.”

26. Oppenheimer, Me’ever la-gader, 202–211.

27. Publishers Weekly, “My Michael,” March 20, 1972, 60; New York Times, June 11, 1972, BR37.

28. Thomas Edwards, “News from Elsewhere” New York Review of Books, vol. 19 no. 5, October 5, 1972.

29. Paul Zweig, “Life and Sex in a Kibbutz and on a Campus”, The New York Times, November 18, 1973, 418.

30. Quoted in Mintz, Translating Israel, 29. The original review was published on July 3, 1972.

31. Richard Locke, “An Israeli Madame Bovary,” The New York Times, May 25, 1972, 43.

32. Mintz, Translating Israel, 30.

33. William Novak, “Kibbutz Life: An Insider’s View,” The Nation, September 7, 1974, 188.

34. Norman Kotker, “Living in history,” The Nation, May 20, 1978, 606; Morris Dickstein, “In the Beginning,” The New York Times, May 28, 1978, BR2.

35. Pollack, “Guide to the Land of Oz.” 2009 interview with de Lange, on the Posen Foundation’s Secular Culture and Ideas blog: http://www.jbooks.com/secularculture/Pollak.htm. Accessed: November 30, 2020.

36. John Bayley “Pioneers and Phantoms,” New York Review of Books, July 20, 1978.

37. Los Angeles Times, December 7, 1972, 59; “Israeli Novelist to Speak Friday,” Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1974, 103.

38. Amnon Rubinstein, “And Now in Israel, a Fluttering of Doves,” New York Times, July 26, 1970, 159.

39. Apart from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune, such reports appeared in local newspapers in Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Kansas City, Florida, and Texas, among others (independent pieces or reprints from the major newspapers); see, for instance, “Israel,” Tampa Bay Times (Florida), May 6, 1973, 14A; Nicholas Shuman, “Bullhorn at Israel’s Ear,” The Billings Gazette (Montana), February 22, 1976, 57; Robert Donovan, “Arab Oil Power Influences U. N,” Austin American Statesman (Texas), December 8, 1974, 79.

40. Henry Kamm, “Village Issue Shows Rift in Israelis’ Outlook,” New York Times, August 20, 1972, 3; Amos Elon, New York Times, October 22, 1972, SM44; Eric Silver, “Israeli Youth Scorn Politics, Reject Forefathers’ Zionism,” Washington Post, April 2, 1973, A3; “Nablus Debate Stirs Clash at Sharon’s Farm,” Jewish Week, August 10, 1974, 13.

41. Dale Singer, “The Hill of Evil Counsel,” St. Louis Jewish Light, July 15, 1978, 7.

42. Grose, Israel in the Mind of America.

43. Mart, Eye on Israel. McAlister, Epic Encounters.

44. Barnett, The Star and the Stripes.

45. Liebman, Pressure without Sanctions.

46. David Remnick, “The Spirit Level,” The New Yorker, November 1, 2004.

47. Alter, “The Rise and the Rise,” 6; “Two Authors, One Israeli, Get B’nai B’rith Awards.” The New York Times, February 20, 1973, 41; see, for instance, Oz’s reading at the Modern Orthodox Beth Israel Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 1973 (The Jewish Press, February 2, 1973, 7); discussion of “conflicting rights of Israelis and Palestinians to a homeland in the Middle East,” at the Reform-affiliated University Synagogue in Los Angeles, on December 1974 (Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1974, 34); and reading at the 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York, on May 1978 (New York Times, May 15, 1978, 18). For a university course in UC, Berkeley in 1970 that relates to Oz, see: Alter, “America and Israel: Literary and Intellectual Trends.” The course was documented and published in a booklet by the Hadassah Education Department. See also: Baskin, “Jewish Studies in North American Colleges and Universities.”

48. Shapira, “Israeli Perceptions of Anti-Semitism,” 251–253.

49. Mitelpunkt, Israel in the American Mind, 179.

50. “A Talk with Amos Oz”, Jewish Frontier, New York, January 1974, vol. 41, no. 1, 17–22; Howe, Irving “Peace in the Middle East? A Conversation between Amos Oz and Irving Howe,” Dissent Magazine, New York, Spring 1975.

51. See, for instance, in Terence Smith, “6 who saw perilous birth assess State of Israel, 25,” New York Times, May 5, 1973, 8; Mitelpunkt, Israel in the American Mind, 302.

52. Timothy McNulty, “Conflict Hits Home as Never Before: Israelis Fear Lebanon Is Their Vietnam,” Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1982. Quoted in Mitelpunkt, Israel in the American Mind, 302.

53. Amos Oz, “Has Israel Altered Its Vision?” New York Times Magazine, July 11, 1982.

54. The request for syllabi was distributed based on the member network of the National Association of Professors of Hebrew in 2009–2010. Syllabi were also taken from Yudkin, Selected Syllabi, and from professors’ online repositories. It is worth noting that unlike the teaching of other Israeli writers, which required professors to rely on English-language anthologies (that often represent each writer with one story) for material for their courses, Oz’s publication history in English meant that professors could teach practically any of his works they wanted.

55. Douglas, A Genealogy of Literary Multiculturalism, 320, 339. For an influential critique of the selective formation of ethnic American literary canons in the academy, see Palumbo-Liu, The Ethnic Canon.

56. Anatole Broyard, “People in Crises,” New York Times, May 22, 1981, C24.

57. Balaban, “Language and Reality in the Prose of Amos Oz,” 86.

58. Oz, In the Land of Israel, 1-24.

59. Robert J. Donovan, “The Arab-Communist-Third-World threat,” Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1974, C7; Herbert Mitgang, “The Stones of Jerusalem,” New York Times, August 19, 1975, 33.

60. Joseph Kraft, “The New Crisis of Zionism,” Boston Globe, November 8, 1973, 55; James Ring Adams, “Israel’s Second Thoughts on the War,” Wall Street Journal February 4, 1974, 10.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

63. Gan, “Ad Mavet.” See also, Amos Oz, “Shalosh teguvot be-yamim terufim” [Three responses in distressing times], Davar, January 5 1973, 12; Aharon Peri’el, “Amos Oz be-kenes ha-tsionut ha-acheret: avodat elilim be-kipot serugot” [Amos Oz in a conference of a different kind of Zionism: Idolatry with knitted kippot], Ma’ariv, October 3, 1977, 3; among others.

64. Joseph Kraft, “The New Crisis of Zionism,” Boston Globe, November 8, 1973, 55.

65. Robert J. Donovan, “The Arab-Communist-Third-World Threat,” Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1974, C7.

66. Herbert Mitgang, “The Stones of Jerusalem,” New York Times, August 19, 1975, 33; Jonathan Broder, “Israeli Victory Cursed Blessing,” Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1977, 8; Michael Parks, “Israel Differs from Founders’ Expectations,” Baltimore Sun, May 8, 1978, A1.

67. Amnon Rubinstein, “And Now in Israel, a Fluttering of Doves,” New York Times, July 26, 1970, 159; Amos Elon, “The Mood: Self-Confidence and a Subdued Sadness,” New York Times, May 6, 1973, 315; Bernard Avishai, “The Arts in Israel: Rebirth,” Vogue 169, no. 5 (May 1979): 291.

68. See, for instance, Yehoshua’s scathing criticism in two reports in the New York Times: Victor Perera, “A letter from Israel,” May 5, 1974, SM21, SM24, SM30, SM37; Anthony Lewis, “Corruption of power,” April 19, 1979, A23.

69. Oz, Under this Blazing Light, xi.

70. Ibid, 10.

71. Ibid, 11.

72. Compare: Be-or ha-tkhelet ha-aza, 81; with Under this Blazing Light, 92. The Hebrew reads: “hem rotsim li-shlol me-itanu ma’amad shel uma u-le-hantsiah et arviyuta shel ha-arets ha-zot.”

73. Ibid, 10.

74. Ibid, 95.

75. Compare: Be-or ha-tkhelet ha-aza, 37; with Under this Blazing Light, 53.

76. Compare: Be-or ha-tkhelet ha-aza, 41; with Under this Blazing Light, 59.

77. Compare: Be-or ha-tkhelet ha-aza, 156; with Under this Blazing Light, 112.

78. Asscher, Reading Israel, Reading America, 73–79, 88–93, 104–108, 118–122, 213.

79. Ibid., 75–76, 77–78, 91–93.

80. Nicholas de Lange, personal correspondence, June 22, 2015.

81. “Professor Nicholas de Lange, Linguist of the Month of July 2017”, https://www.le-mot-juste-en-anglais.com/2000/07/professeur-nicholas-de-lange-linguist-of-the-month-of-july-2017.html. Accessed: November 30, 2020.

82. Ibid.

83. Hillel Halkin, personal correspondence, June 21, 2015.

84. Amos Oz, personal correspondence, June 29, 2015.

85. Cohen, Voices of Israel, 190.

86. See, for instance: “An Exchange on Zionism”, New York Review of Books 25, no. 5 (April 6, 1978), 38; and, more obliquely, in his recent biography of founder of Revisionist Zionism: Jabotinsky: A Life.

87. Hillel Halkin, personal correspondence, June 21, 2015. Compare Halkin’s approach, as discussed in Cutter’s essay on his translation of Agnon’s A Simple Story, “Rendering Galicia for America,” with Oz’s discussion of translation in Cohen, Voices of Israel: “[t]ranslation should avoid any attempt to neutralize the characters. There is no point in making a Sephardic Jew speak like a black person from the South of the United States even though the temptation is there, or vice versa. A Faulknerian black should never speak in the Hebrew version of a Faulkner novel like a North African Jew. Time and again, I have had disagreements with my translators about issues such as ‘a cup of tea’ or ‘a glass of tea.’ They normally tend, as an immediate response, to translate ‘a glass of tea with milk’ into the obvious English term, ‘a cup of tea,’ which is officially correct for the British. Otherwise, it is lemon tea. I therefore normally insist that the translation, at the cost of sounding peculiar, odd or even outlandish sometimes, or clumsy, that where the circumstances require, it ought to remain ‘a glass of tea with milk’ rather than ‘a cup of tea.’ That is what I mean by avoiding the temptation to neutralize the characters.” (189).

88. The guidebook Translation in Practice, published following a symposium of English translators and editors on literary translation held in 2008, provides a peek behind the scenes of the publishing world that lends support to the assumption that the “cushioning” of critical aspects of the texts occurred on the editorial level. See: Paul, Translation in Practice, 59, 63.

89. Alter mentions sales that constitute “a respectable presence” (without however substantiating this with actual numbers), large audiences that come to public readings, and commentary made by critics on the oeuvre as a whole, to attest to a “real following” developed by the major Israeli writers in America. See: Alter, “The Rise and the Rise,” 5.

90. Ibid.

91. Vox Tablet, “Amos Oz Still Dreams of Life on the Kibbutz,” September 23, 2013. http://elmundosefarad.wikidot.com/amos-oz-still-dreams-of-life-on-the-kibbutz. Accessed: November 30, 2020.

92. In reference to the plight of Palestinian refugees, which may be extended to other thorny issues of Israeli political and historical ethics, historian David Myers writes that “misinformation and denial … have been more pronounced in the Diaspora [than in Israel],” adding, “Conformity was and remains a prominent value among Diaspora supporters of the State of Israel.” Myers, Between Jew and Arab, 11.

93. For a compelling recent example, see: Gordon, “Does anybody still need Judaism?” For a discussion of Oz’s approach to Jewish culture in the diaspora, see Asscher, Reading Israel, Reading America, 175–176.

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Omri Asscher

Omri Asscher is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies in Bar-Ilan University. His work deals with competing Jewish identities in Israel and the United States, primarily through the prism of literary and theological translation. Articles by him have appeared in journals such as Jewish Social Studies, AJS Review, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Israel Studies, Translation Studies, Translation and Interpreting Studies, Meta, and Target: International Journal of Translation Studies, among others. His book, Reading Israel, Reading America: The Politics of Translation between Jews, was published in 2019 by Stanford University Press.