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Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

 
Venue: 
Room 7, Facutlty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
Event date: 
Monday, 9 March, 2020 - 17:15 to 18:30
Event organiser: 

Hebrew Studies Seminar Series talk given by Nitzan Lebovic

The story of the early Zionist settlement in Palestine from the viewpoint of failure and melancholia. An untold history of this period ignores the high rate of suicides and cases of clinical depression among the Zionist pioneers. Literary texts, letters, and diaries, often started from a utopian and a revivalist viewpoint and quickly shifted to a deep melancholic understanding of the Jewish Yishuv. However, in some cases, they also opened a new perspective into alternative politics, storytelling, and personal identity.

Nitzan Lebovic received his B.A. in History and Theory of Literature from Tel Aviv University and his Ph.D. from UCLA. He is the author of The Philosophy of Life and Death: Ludwig Klages and the Rise of a Nazi Biopolitics (2013) and Zionism and Melancholy: The Short Life of Israel Zarchi ( 2015 in Hebrew 2019 in English). Nitzan is also co- editor of The Politics of Nihilism (2014) and of Catastrophes: A History and Theory of an Operative Concept (2014), and has authored special issues of Rethinking History, Zmanim, The New German Critique (Political Theology), Comparative Literature and Culture (Complicity and Dissent), and Political Theology (Prophetic Politics).

Contact
Professor Yaron Peleg: yp240@cam.ac.uk