The First Hebrew Gay Detective: Sexuality, Identity Politics and the Enigma of the Self in the Detective Novel

Hebrew Studies Seminar Series talk given by Yonatan Sagiv, Research Associate, Centre for Jewish Studies, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London

Contemplating critical reactions to his detective novel series led by the gay private investigator, Oded Heffer, Israeli author and literary scholar, Yonatan Sagiv, explores the pivotal role that sexuality, social identity, and the construction of the self play in the detective genre. Focusing on the Anglo-American tradition of the genre as well as its Israeli variation, Sagiv's lecture will examine the multiple aspects of the question of identity as central to the understanding of the figure of the detective.

Yonatan Sagiv is an author and a scholar of modern Hebrew literature. He is the author of the detective novel series featuring Oded Heffer: No Secret’s Safe with Me (Keter Publishing House, 2014), Silence Gives Consent (Keter, 2017) and She's a Scream! (Keter, 2019) and has published a scholarly monograph about Shmuel Yosef Agnon's literary representations of the relations between economy, money and Jewish identity, Indebted: Capitalism and Religion in the Writings of Shmuel Yosef Agnon (Hebrew Union College Press, 2016). His articles on Jewish and Hebrew literature appeared in academic journals such as AJS, PROOFTEXTS and Mikan. Sagiv is currently a research associate of the Centre for Jewish Studies at SOAS.