Research Trip Report to Tel Aviv (18.03.-03.04.11)
Research Trip Report to Tel Aviv (Israel)
During the semester pause of the current academic year, I decided to organize a short research trip to Tel Aviv (Israel) for several reasons:
- I needed to gather more updated bibliographic material in the Tel Aviv University library for my research about Modern Hebrew Literature;
- I needed to visit some book shops in order to get a general appraisal of the new tendencies in my study field;
- I needed to meet Professors and colleagues from Israeli academic institutions;
- I needed to practice and improve my knowledge of Hebrew language.
I arrived to Tel Aviv on the afternoon of the 18th of March. Due to the Jewish holyday of Purim, I started going to the library of Tel Aviv University on the 20th of March. I had previously contacted the responsible of the library so that I had the permission to use the library that very morning. Since then, I have been attending the library the whole days of the week (with the exception of the week end, of course), in order to gather bibliographic material (articles and books) both in Hebrew and in English about Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Aharon Appelfeld, Yehudah Amichai and Yitzahaq Awerbuch Orpaz. I have been looking also for books and articles about the reception and the research on Michail Bakhtin’s works in Israel in Hebrew. This topic, is, I think, highly interesting and rather new in the Israeli context.
In the evening, I have been attending some conferences in Hebrew: namely on the 24 of March I was at Beyt Bialik (Bialik’s House) for the presentation of the collected works of the poet Mordekhai Geldman Halakhti shanim le-tzadekha (I have been walking at your side for years) who has been awarded the Bialik Prize for literature this year; on the evening of the 29th of March I was at the Makhon Helikon (The Society for the Advancement of Poetry in Israel) in order to listen to Prof. Ruth Kartun-Blum interviewing the writer Ronni Someck about his life and novels.
During the weekends, I also met Prof. Ruth Kartun-Blum in order to discuss with her my research and Ran Yagil who is the director of the literary periodical Emdah (Position) where I have already published an article in Hebrew about David Shahar.