The Agnonian Text as a System of Systems

In this paper we will try to show how Agnon has succeeded in creating a text with a clearly definable physical/spiritual message through the creation of two tight and complex word Systems: (a) a System based on the polysemous Hebrew words makom (place, God) and olam (world, age, eternity) with ail their historical inter‐and intralingual associations and (b) a word System based on the pivotal axis of the metathesized Leitwörter composed of the triconsonantal roots M‐TS‐? (find)/TS‐M‐? (thirst). Together, these two word Systems create a text which may be viewed as a larger “system of Systems” composed of these two phonological‐semantic‐associative sub‐systems. The purpose of this paper is not merely to isolate several word Systems as they function in a specific text, but rather to show that the Agnonian text is operating simultaneously on two planes: the most basic physical as well as the highest spiritual. All of this has its foundation, however, in the author's systematic use of language to create his message.