Zionist as Writer: A. B. Yehoshua Talks with Harry James Cargas

138 SHOFAR Fall 1994 Vol. 13, No. 1 ZIONIST AS WRITER: A. B. YEHOSHUA TALKS WITH HARRY JAMES CARGAS A. B. Yehoshua's writings have appeared in at least 14 nations. A graduate of the Departments of Philosophy and Hebrew Literature at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, this fifth-generation Israeli has written his plays "A Night in May," "Last Treatments," and "Possessions" and his novels The Lover, A Late Divorce, and Five Seasons all in Hebrew. Here he is interviewed by Professor Harry James Cargas of Webster University (St. Louis), the author of 28 books, including Conversations with EUe Wiesel and Voices from the Holocaust. Dr. Cargas indicates that in editing this interview, he attempted to retain the English construction of Mr. Yehoshua's sentences. HJC: Can an Israeli writer be non-political? ABY: Yes, he can. And I know some writers who are non-political. But I would say generally it's very hard. It's very hard because the tradition of writing in Jewish legacy and Jewish activity was always that writing is not, cannot be just for art for art's sake, but had to be involved in history, in a society and things like that. I-IJC: Is this particularly true since events of the Second World War? ABY: I think yes, but it was also true before. Zionism was born by writers. People don't know that I-1erzl was a writer. If you would ask Herzl his profession , he would say, "My profession is a playwriter and I would like to be a writer." He was just a failure as a playwright and that is the reason why he turned to Zionism. No doubt, Jabotinsky and some of the greatest fathers of Zionism were writers. So, there is a very intimate connection between writers and political activity. And you can add to this also the question of the renewal of the Hebrew language. To write in Hebrew was a kind of a political act. Meaning that you are returning to your father's language, to the ancient language in order to revive it. Meaning that A. B. Yehoshua Talks with Harry james Cargas 139 writing in Hebrew was by itself an ideological thing, not in Yiddish and not in other foreign languages. HJC: You have described in a certain way a sense of responsibility. How heavily does that weigh on you? ABY: It weighs enough by the fact that we had a public that wants to hear us and demand some answer. And, though you have a relationship with the public, you are not just entertainers. You are not writing for ... you cannot speak about money. The question of money is always a kind of a hidden secret question because it is not fair that a writer in Israel would earn money from his writing. Because you have a kind of moral relationship to the public. So, in this sense, we have this responsibility. HJC: What about the public beyond Israel and the public beyond the Jews? ABY: This is always a kind of a far circle. And it was only in the last years, in the last let's say 15 years, that the Hebrew literature, the Israeli literature, was going beyond the boundaries of the people itself. And this is completely a new phenomenon. There was not before such a thing. Many of our great masters were not translated. See, we are far more known than our classics. And it has confused us. Take me, for example. Of course it gives pleasure that you have a public that can appreciate you and the aesthetic values of your creation. But still you feel as if the main battlefield for yourself as a writer is in your homeland and will be always in your homeland. Whatever praises you will get from outside, the more important is what people do say in your country. This is the way in which perhaps your creation will be preserved for future generations. HJC: Let me ask specif1cally about your creation. The questioner of course brings his own prejudices to the question, but one of mine has to do with the distinction between surrealism and realism which is reflected...