The birth of poetry from the music of disaster: divine violence in the poetry of Meir Wieseltier. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Soker-Schwager, Hanna
• Is Part Of: Journal of modern Jewish studies. Volume 18:Issue 1(2019)
• Page Start: 108
• Page End: 124
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Meir Wieseltier -- theological-political sovereignty -- violence -- messianic discourse -- divine music of catastrophe; Jews -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Judaism -- Periodicals; Jews -- Periodicals; 305.8924
• DOI: 10.1080/14725886.2018.1519992
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1472-5886

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article explores the poetic and political-theological nexus of power, violence and sovereignty in Meir Wieseltier's work. No poet seems to have inserted himself quite so powerfully into the narrow crack between the authority of the political sovereign and that of the divine sovereign, warning against the dangerous link between the theological and the political in Israel's messianic discourse. Wieseltier seems to draw inspiration from the theological-political sovereignty which relies on "an act of exception", then to perform it poetically ("an exceptional verb") to found his sovereignty and authority. Wieseltier's poetry arises from the divine music of catastrophe, based on a great intimacy with the ancient sources. It includes musical syntactic structures, like the mishnaic catalogue syntax, or the apocalyptic language of liturgical poetry in the prayers for the High Holy days with their outrageous "music of curses".