Abstract
Samuel ha-Nagid employed, in poems dealing with death, sickness and danger, a realistic style quite uncommon in contemporary Hebrew-Spanish poetry. This style gives them a gruesome, macabre mood. The prevalent contemporary view that regarded Tevel — world and worldliness — as evil and inferior, made it difficult to express love for life in a direct, positive manner. It also dictated that such positive motifs as praise or love be treated in a lofty un-realistic mode, but allowed for a realistic expression of lowly matters. Constrained by this poetic code, ha-Nagid expresses his love for life-on-this-earth by depicting death in a realistic way, as its abhorrent opposite.
| Translated title of the contribution | The Realistic and the Macabre in the Poetry of Samuel Ha-Nagid |
|---|---|
| Original language | Hebrew |
| Pages (from-to) | 75-82 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | מחקרי ירושלים בספרות עברית |
| Volume | טו |
| State | Published - 1995 |