Well-Hidden Testimony: A Study of "The Document" by S. Y. Agnon

The article discusses an enigmatic story "The Document" (1932) from The Book of Deeds. It attempts to decipher the story by unfolding its various facets: the hidden meaning of the story's main scenes and their way of relating to one another; the ties between this story and other stories in The Book of Deeds ("Hefker" and "A Whole Loaf"); and the latent theme of the story, namely literary writing. The conclusion is that the early stories of Agnon's Book of Deeds (such as "The Document") might be perceived as a son of a coded literary "diary," which accompanied Agnon's work in the early 1930s, setting forth his perplexity, inner struggle, and quest for right modes of writing.