Rhetoric and Nation

Critics commonly hold that the modern Hebrew canon reveals a shared rhetoric, crucial for the emergence and formation of modern Jewish nationalism. Yet, does the Hebrew canon indeed demonstrate a shared logic? In Rhetoric and Nation, Ginsburg challenges the common conflation of modern Hebrew rhetoric and modern Jewish nationalism. Considering a wide range of texts of literature, criticism, and politics, Ginsburg explores the way each text manifests its own singular logic, which cannot be subsumed under any single ideology. Through close readings of key canonical texts, Rhetoric and Nation demonstrates that the Hebrew discourse of the nation should not be conceived as coherent and cohesive but, rather, as an assemblage of singular, disparate moments.