Canaanism and identity issues in Minotaur, by Benjamin Tammuz
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-8051.cllh.2023.212568Keywords:
Hebrew Literature, Benjamin Tammuz, Canaanism, Identity, Jewish StudiesAbstract
This paper seeks to examine how the themes of Canaanism and Israeli identity permeate Minotaur, a novel by Benjamin Tammuz published in the 1980s. It discusses how the author uses the novel's circular - mazelike - narrative to address the issue of split identities, personified by the main character, and the issue of the Canaanite ideology, which defends a land-bound Hebrew identity shared by the entire population of the Fertile Crescent area, through the discourse of a secondary character. The analysis of the main character, Alex Abramov, the minotaur to which the title refers, addresses the Greek myth but also Barthes' myth, in which reality is susceptible to deformation by the systems of symbols transmitted by each society, evidencing pieces of a constructed and dismembered identity, for which Canaanism could possibly be a valid answer.
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References
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TAMMUZ, B. Concurso de Natação. In: BEREZIN, R. (Org.). A Geração da Terra. São Paulo: Summus, 1983.
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