Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Publication Date

5-5-1977

Abstract

Critics of the rabbi Santob de Carrion's Proverbios morales have often remarked on the work's frequent juxtaposition of contradictory maxims. It has been further said that reversibility of ideas characterizes both its structure and the thinking of its author. Interpretations of the literary traditions from which such structure and thought may have sprung have differed sharply. This study examines Santob's major work in Hebrew, his Debate between the Pen and the Scissors, and demonstrates the close relation that exists between the Semitic literary tradition from which it comes and the Proverbios morales.

Through the assistance of Professor Jefim Schirmann of Hebrew University misinformation regarding the manuscript tradition of Santob's debate is corrected. Unfortunately, the present location of both known manuscripts is uncertain, and the only complete text available at this time is the 1848 edition of Eleazar Ashkenazi. The English version of that edition prepared for this study is the only translation that has been done of the complete work.

A survey of medieval debate literature shows that European literary debates, derived from the Latin altercatio, differ substantially from an important type of Arabic and Hispano-Hebraic literary debate. The latter is characterized by only a secondary interest in the ideological competition between the opposing points of view. Instead, a display of literary skill is the primary objective. The writer usually makes use of two spokesmen who are nearly equally matched in their rhetorical mastery, and thus he shows off to better advantage his own command of language. This type of Arabic literary debate reflects the rhetorical contests that took place in gatherings of Arabic-speaking literati. Provençal literary debates also have some of the characteristics of those written in Spain in Arabic and Hebrew. This circum­stance seems to derive from the existence within the literary culture of Provence of similar poetic competitions, although the possibility of some Proven9al influence on the Hispano­Hebraic examples is also suggested by certain historical circumstances.

Santob's debate is analyzed in terms of structure and imagery. It is shown, first, that it belongs to the Arabic and Hispano-Hebraic tradition of rhetorical debate, exhibiting virtuoso manipulation of language, argumentation by inversion of one's opponent's imagery, and other typical stylistic traits. Secondly, the question which is debated--whether pen or scissors is a better writing instrument--is seen to be based on the medieval Semitic tradition of literary disputes between pen and sword. In Santob's debate this tradition is used as the basis for veiled comment on the anti-Semitic persecutions of 1339-40. Gonzalo Martinez, the unscrupulously ambitious instigator and sudden replacement for Jews as the royal favorite, is represented by the violent scissors. These wish to usurp the rightful role of the wise pen (which represents the Jewish courtiers) as the instrument through which their master expresses his thoughts and commands.

In the Proverbios morales parallels in thought and imagery to Santob's debate are documented. The distinctive characteristics typical of that Castilian work are shown to be found in Semitic literary debate. These include sys­tematic inversion of imagery and the juxtaposition of contradictory maxims and exempla. In addition, Santob's use of personified abstractions and objects to express his conflicting ideas and feelings, which can be seen in his debate, is shown to be typical of the Proverbios morales, as well as of his minor works in Hebrew.

This examination of Santob's debate and other writings in Hebrew reveals his familiarity with and use of elements from Arabic and Hispano-Hebraic literary debate. It concludes that Santob's personality and its literary expression in the Provercios morales spring from a Semitic cultural tradi­tion that had not lost its identity or vitality in fourteenth­century Castile.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

First Committee Member (Chair)

Jack Edward Tomlins

Second Committee Member

Julián Eugene White Jr.

Third Committee Member

Raymond Ralph MacCurdy

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