Here the parallel between secular Jewish culture and radical poetics becomes weak, and again, mystical Judaism provides a much better point of reference: the deliberate linguistic misbehavior of radical poets finds a much stronger correlate in Jewish mystical literature than it does in secular Jewish literature. The rejection of religion by secular Jewish culture is a two-dimensional analogue to the supposed radical rejection of traditional poetics. But it minimizes the extent to which radical poets have innovated within literature rather than merely rejected it. Both Kabbalistic literature and radical poetics never flat-out reject their respective canons; however, they both impose upon their traditions entirely new literary philosophies. Lyn Hejinian and Ron Silliman are two Language poets whose work particularly calls into question the very metaphysical underpinnings of language. And Gertrude Stein’s linguistic alchemy is as obscure and esoteric as Luria’s.

Auster, in discussing the Jewish/American identity-dilemma, said that he considers himself not both but neither; he called it “the condition of being nowhere.” However, exile, as a dialectic paradigm, requires return. Even radical poetry arrives somewhere. So, instead of endlessly hyphenating post-modern Jewish identity, and instead of employing the debilitating victim-stereotype to define Jewish writing, perhaps we should understand radical writing and radical Judaism in the way that Rothenberg implied—as a self-imposed expulsion from the territory of language, that must occur over and over again in order to maintain the living, evolving quality of language. Isn’t that what Luria would do?

[1]       [2]       3 Image: Smadar Eliaf, Thanks (1978)

Hila Ratzabi is Curatorial Associate at the Graphics Department of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Smadar Eliaf's work (www.nogagallery.co.il) compels viewers to slow observation, and responds to intimacy and at the same time to dissociation and destruction.

Email us your comments

Related:

This Land was Your Land: A Review of Philip Roth James Russell
American Values and The Plot Against America
November, 2004

Retrato de Familia Bara Sapir
A family of Guatemalan Jewish artists
September, 2004

Singing God's Praises: Psalms and Authenticity Josh Feigelson
What's lost and found in two new translations of the psalms
September, 2004

One Ring Zero: As Smart as They Are Paul Fischer
Brooklyn's latest hepster yids make good
July, 2004

How Jewish is Modigliani? Esther Nussbaum
A reappraisal of Modigliani la juif
August, 2004

T Cooper: No Fences Abi Cohen
The Zeek interview
May, 2004

Passion and Violence Jay Michaelson
On the Mel Gibson film and the passions of religion
March, 2004

Harvard Death Fugue:
The Exploitation of Bruno Schultz Prof. James Russell
Historical revisionism and the new antisemitism in academia.
January, 2004

Holocaust Video Testimonies Dan Friedman
The other reality TV
August, 2003

The Gifts of the German Jews Michael Shurkin
Toward a postmodern Judaism
August, 2003

Reinventing the Wheel Michael Shurkin
A review of Douglas Rushkoff's Nothing Sacred
July, 2003

Strasbourg Cathedral Michael Shurkin
The soft borders between Jewish particularism and universalism
February, 2003

What is Charlie Kaufman Doing? Dan Friedman
The interdependence of fantasy and reality
February, 2003

Edward Weston and the "M" Word Michael Shurkin
What is modernism?
July, 2002

Mystical Nazi Sex Gods Jay Michaelson
What draws protesters to banal holocaust art?
April, 2002