Reuven Snir
Encyclopedia
Reuven Snir (born 1953) is an Israeli Jewish academic, Professor
of Arabic language
and Arabic literature at the University of Haifa
, Dean of Humanities, and a translator of poetry
between Arabic, Hebrew, and English
.
to a family which had immigrated from Baghdad
in 1951. The language spoken at home between his parents was the Iraqi spoken Arabic, but as a Sabra
– a native-born Israeli Jew – Hebrew was his mother tongue, while Arabic was for him, as dictated by the Israeli-Zionist educational system, the language of the enemy, furthermore, Arabness and Jewishness were considered as mutually exclusive.
He was educated at the Nirim School in Mahne David, a transit camp (ma‘barah
) established near Haifa for the immigrating Arab Jews
. Then he moved to the Hebrew Reali School
in Haifa. He obtained his M.A.
from the Hebrew University (1982) for a thesis
which included edition of an ascetic manuscript entitled Kitāb al-Zuhd by al-Mu‘afa ibn ‘Imran from the 8th century A.D.
In 1987 he was granted Ph.D. for a dissertation written at the same university about the mystical dimensions in modern Arabic poetry.
While studying at the Hebrew University, he served as a senior news editor, at the Voice of Israel, Arabic Section (1977–1988). Between 2000-2004, he served as the Chair of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Haifa. Since 1996, he has been serving as an Associate Editor of the Arabic-language journal Al-Karmil – Studies in Arabic Language and Literature. He participated in the international exhibition in honor of the Syrian poet and literary scholar Adunis held at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, which resulted in the publication of Adonis: un poète dans le monde d’aujourd’hui 1950-2000 (Paris: Institut du monde arabe, 2000).
He served as a fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2004–2005), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
(2000 and 2008), and taught at Heidelberg University (2002) and Freie Universität Berlin (2005). Following a course he gave in Berlin, his students published the first collection of short stories by Iraqi Jews translated into German.
and non-canonical sub-systems, and the external relationships with other non-literary systems (e.g. religious, social
, nation
al, and political) and with foreign cultural systems. Another central theoretical axis of Snir’s studies, especially during the last decade, is the issue of identity based on what has been argued in the theoretical discourse of cultural studies that identities are subject to a radical historicization, and are constantly in the process of change and transformation and they are about questions of using the resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming rather than being: not “who we are” or “where we came from”, so much as what we might become, how we have been represented and how that bears on how we might represent ourself.
These studies led to a book length study on the topic.
Among the chapters of the book: “The Modern Arabic Literary System,” which refers to the topic of popular literature and its legitimation; “The Literary Dynamics in the Synchronic Crosssection,” which presents both the canonical and the noncanonical literature on three levels texts for adult, for children and the translated texts, with a summary of the internal and external interrelationships; and “Outlines of the Diachronic
Intersystemic Development,” examines the issue of the diachronic interactions that obtain between the literary system and various other literary as well as extra-literary systems.
The meaning of the title of the book is based on an utterance by the Persian mystic and forerunner of Sufism, al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj who was executed in 922 A.D. following his preaching which was considered as blasphemy. Al-Azhar University in Cairo banned the circulation of the book for what was described as defaming Islam by titling the study with a reference to an utterance which might be interpreted as heresy.
Apart from the Hebrew book, Snir has published in recent years articles about various aspects of Arab Jewish culture, chronicling the demise of that culture. The following are the major areas of his research in this field:
Arab-Jewish culture and journalism;
the cultural Arabic activities of Iraqi Jews;
the Egyptian Jews and their conflicting cultural tendencies;
In 2005 he published a book which summarized his findings.
The study endeavors to outline the historical development of Palestinian dramatic literature and theatre from its hesitant rise before 1948 and the first theatrical attempts, to the heavy blow which these attempts suffered as a result of the establishment of the State of Israel, to regeneration of the professional theatre out of the ashes of the 1967 defeat, through to the activities of the 1970s and the role they played in Palestinian nation-building.
Snir’s translations of Hebrew poetry into Arabic were published in Mifgash-Liqa’ (Israel), Farādīs (Paris), and on the Internet, such as in www.elaph.com. An anthology of Hebrew poetry translated into Arabic was published on the Internet.
He also published a collection of translated poems by two Hebrew poets, Ronny Someck and Amir Or.
Translations into Hebrew
Translations of Arabic literature, especially poetry, into Hebrew were published in literary supplements, magazines and books (Helikon, Moznaim, ‘Iton 77
, Mifgash-Liqa’, Ha’aretz, Ma‘ariv
, Al HaMishmar).
Interviews
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Arabic literature at the University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa is a university in Haifa, Israel.The University of Haifa was founded in 1963 by Haifa mayor Abba Hushi, to operate under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, Dean of Humanities, and a translator of poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
between Arabic, Hebrew, and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
Biography
Reuven Snir was born in HaifaHaifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
to a family which had immigrated from Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
in 1951. The language spoken at home between his parents was the Iraqi spoken Arabic, but as a Sabra
Sabra
Sabra may refer to:*Sabra and Shatila massacre, a 1982 massacre in Lebanon**Sabra refugee camp, former Palestinian refugee camp, part of the scene of the above massacre*Sabra , a native-born Israeli JewSABRA...
– a native-born Israeli Jew – Hebrew was his mother tongue, while Arabic was for him, as dictated by the Israeli-Zionist educational system, the language of the enemy, furthermore, Arabness and Jewishness were considered as mutually exclusive.
He was educated at the Nirim School in Mahne David, a transit camp (ma‘barah
Ma'abarot
The Ma'abarot were refugee absorption camps in Israel in the 1950s. The Ma'abarot were meant to provide accommodation for the large influx of Jewish refugees and new Olim arriving to the newly independent State of Israel, replacing the less habitable immigrant camps or tent cities...
) established near Haifa for the immigrating Arab Jews
Arab Jews
Arab Jews is a term referring to Jews living in the Arab World, or Jews descended from such persons.The term was occasionally used in the early 20th century, mainly by Arab nationalists, to describe the 1 million Jews living in the Arab world at the time...
. Then he moved to the Hebrew Reali School
Hebrew Reali School
The Hebrew Reali School of Haifa , located in Haifa, Israel, is one of the country's oldest private schools.-History:...
in Haifa. He obtained his M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from the Hebrew University (1982) for a thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
which included edition of an ascetic manuscript entitled Kitāb al-Zuhd by al-Mu‘afa ibn ‘Imran from the 8th century A.D.
In 1987 he was granted Ph.D. for a dissertation written at the same university about the mystical dimensions in modern Arabic poetry.
While studying at the Hebrew University, he served as a senior news editor, at the Voice of Israel, Arabic Section (1977–1988). Between 2000-2004, he served as the Chair of the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Haifa. Since 1996, he has been serving as an Associate Editor of the Arabic-language journal Al-Karmil – Studies in Arabic Language and Literature. He participated in the international exhibition in honor of the Syrian poet and literary scholar Adunis held at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris, which resulted in the publication of Adonis: un poète dans le monde d’aujourd’hui 1950-2000 (Paris: Institut du monde arabe, 2000).
He served as a fellow at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2004–2005), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies
The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies is an independent institution which is part of the University of Oxford. Its research fellows teach on a variety of Bachelors and Masters degrees in Oriental Studies, and it publishes the Journal of Jewish Studies.-History and Case Statement:The...
(2000 and 2008), and taught at Heidelberg University (2002) and Freie Universität Berlin (2005). Following a course he gave in Berlin, his students published the first collection of short stories by Iraqi Jews translated into German.
Research interests
Since the start of his academic career, Snir has concentrated on several subjects stemming from one comprehensive research plan in an attempt to investigate the internal dynamics of the Arabic literary system, the interrelations and interactions between its various sectors, such as the canonicalCanonical
Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the greek word κανών kanon, "rule" or "measuring stick" , and is used in various meanings....
and non-canonical sub-systems, and the external relationships with other non-literary systems (e.g. religious, social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
, nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
al, and political) and with foreign cultural systems. Another central theoretical axis of Snir’s studies, especially during the last decade, is the issue of identity based on what has been argued in the theoretical discourse of cultural studies that identities are subject to a radical historicization, and are constantly in the process of change and transformation and they are about questions of using the resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming rather than being: not “who we are” or “where we came from”, so much as what we might become, how we have been represented and how that bears on how we might represent ourself.
Publications
Snir has been publishing in English, Arabic and Hebrew. The following are the topics about which he published his major studies:The Modern Arabic Literary System
An Operative Functional Dynamic Historical Model for the Study of Arabic Literature Based on the assumption that no literary critic can deal systematically with literary phenomena without relating them, either implicitly or explicitly, to some framework of facts or ideas, Snir published studies outlining a theoretical framework that would make possible the comprehensive analysis of all the diverse texts that make up modern Arabic literature.These studies led to a book length study on the topic.
Among the chapters of the book: “The Modern Arabic Literary System,” which refers to the topic of popular literature and its legitimation; “The Literary Dynamics in the Synchronic Crosssection,” which presents both the canonical and the noncanonical literature on three levels texts for adult, for children and the translated texts, with a summary of the internal and external interrelationships; and “Outlines of the Diachronic
Diachronic
Diachronic or Diachronous,from the Greek word Διαχρονικός , is a term for something happening over time. It is used in several fields of research.*Diachronic linguistics : see Historical linguistics...
Intersystemic Development,” examines the issue of the diachronic interactions that obtain between the literary system and various other literary as well as extra-literary systems.
The Iraqi Poet ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayyati (1926-1999)
Poetry was once the principal channel of literary creativity among the Arabs and served as their chronicle and public register, recording their very appearance on the stage of history. During the second half of the twentieth century however the novel became the leading genre. This change in the status of literary genres is not exclusive to Arabic literature and has much to do with the hermetic nature of modernist poetry, which has become self-regarding and employs obscure imagery and very subjective language. In an attempt to present the great change that occurs in Arabic poetry during the 20th century, Snir published a study of the poetry of the Iraqi poet ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayyati, one of the standard bearers of modern Arabic poetry.The meaning of the title of the book is based on an utterance by the Persian mystic and forerunner of Sufism, al-Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj who was executed in 922 A.D. following his preaching which was considered as blasphemy. Al-Azhar University in Cairo banned the circulation of the book for what was described as defaming Islam by titling the study with a reference to an utterance which might be interpreted as heresy.
Arab-Jewish Identity and Culture
Since the late 1980s, Snir has been investigating Arab-Jewish identity against the backdrop of the gradual demise of Arab-Jewish culture. Until the twentieth century, the great majority of the Jews under the rule of Islam adopted Arabic as their language; now Arabic is gradually disappearing as a language mastered by Jews. In his studies on the topic he has referred to a kind of unspoken agreement between the two national movements, Zionism and Arab nationalism – each with the mutually exclusive support of a divine authority – to perform a total cleansing of Arab-Jewish culture. Both of them have excluded the hybrid Arab-Jewish identity and highlighted instead a “pure” Jewish-Zionist identity against a “pure” Muslim-Arab one. In the modern period, Jews were nowhere as open to participation in the wider modern Arab culture as in Iraq, where the Jewish community had lived without interruption for two and a half millennia. In his major study in the field, Snir has provided a documented history of the modern Arab culture of Iraqi Jews.Apart from the Hebrew book, Snir has published in recent years articles about various aspects of Arab Jewish culture, chronicling the demise of that culture. The following are the major areas of his research in this field:
Arab-Jewish culture and journalism;
the cultural Arabic activities of Iraqi Jews;
the Egyptian Jews and their conflicting cultural tendencies;
The Emergence and Development of Palestinian Theatre
One of Snir’s major research projects has been the investigation of the development of Palestinian theatre. His first contribution in the field was included in a special volume of Contemporary Theatre Review on “Palestinians and Israelis in the Theatre.”In 2005 he published a book which summarized his findings.
The study endeavors to outline the historical development of Palestinian dramatic literature and theatre from its hesitant rise before 1948 and the first theatrical attempts, to the heavy blow which these attempts suffered as a result of the establishment of the State of Israel, to regeneration of the professional theatre out of the ashes of the 1967 defeat, through to the activities of the 1970s and the role they played in Palestinian nation-building.
Religion, Mysticism and Modern Arabic Literature
The connections between Arabic literature and Islamic mysticism were in the centre of some of Snir’s investigations and publications. In 2005 he summarized his findings in a book which deals with the synchronic status of traditional literature in the literary system and the diachronic relationship between Arabic literature and Islam in modern times. Also, within the generic cross-section, it deals with the mystical theme in Arabic poetry, its literary and extra-literary concretization in the writings of one author, and its materialization in one text.Arabic Science Fiction
As the study of non-canonical texts (i.e. those literary works that have been rejected by the dominant circles as illegitimate) and their relationship with canonical texts is essential if we wish to arrive at an adequate understanding of the historical development of Arabic literature, he has undertaken to explore the genre of science fiction and the process of its canonization in Arabic literature.The Poetry of Mahmud Darwish
Concentrating broadly on how Palestinian poetry has been chronicling the nakba (the catastrophe of 1948) and its unending agonies, Snir has studied a specific chronicle of the Palestinian people in the mid-1980s against the backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and prior to the outbreak of the first intifada in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, it is a chronicle undertaken by a single poet, Mahmud Darwish (1941–2008) mainly in one collection, Ward Aqall [Fewer Roses] (1986), and more specifically in one poem, “Other Barbarians Will Come”.Entries in Encyclopedias
Snir served as a Contributing Editor for Encyclopedia of Modern Jewish Culture (London & New York: Routledge, 2005) for which he has contributed the entries on Arab-Jewish culture. He also contributed to several other international encyclopedia.Translations
Translations into ArabicSnir’s translations of Hebrew poetry into Arabic were published in Mifgash-Liqa’ (Israel), Farādīs (Paris), and on the Internet, such as in www.elaph.com. An anthology of Hebrew poetry translated into Arabic was published on the Internet.
He also published a collection of translated poems by two Hebrew poets, Ronny Someck and Amir Or.
Translations into Hebrew
Translations of Arabic literature, especially poetry, into Hebrew were published in literary supplements, magazines and books (Helikon, Moznaim, ‘Iton 77
Iton 77
Iton 77 is an Israeli monthly of literature and culture. Founded by the poet and editor Yaakov Besser in 1977. Iton 77 is among the oldest literary magazines in Israel and has been published regularly for 30 years, which is almost unprecedented in Israeli publishing. The magazine also owns a small...
, Mifgash-Liqa’, Ha’aretz, Ma‘ariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
, Al HaMishmar).
External links
- Reuven Snir’s website
- University of Manchester
- Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin:
- http://www.wiko-berlin.de/index.php?id=196&no_cache=1&tx_wikofellows_pi1[action]=details&tx_wikofellows_pi1[uid]=410
Interviews