Inter-Generational Portraits: Agnon, Shaked, Gender and Narrative

This paper approaches the critical oeuvre of Gershon Shaked, with particular reference to his writing on Agnon's fiction, in light of the complexity of Jewish responses to the Enlightenment. The ironic tensions that shape Agnon's fiction and Shaked's criticism can be read in light of the conflicting identifications that shaped Jewish responses to anti-Semitic themes in European culture. Agnon's novella, Shevu'at emunim, and Shaked's essay on it, exemplify the value of literary response in exposing the conflicting trends that subtend culture and ideology.