Centre for the study of bible, culture and modernity

Joseph

Joseph's Dreams - Modern Visions

Conference "Joseph’s Dreams - Modern Visions"
Princeton University, October 29, 2017

The figure of Joseph is among the most intriguing and multifaceted in the Hebrew Bible: favored son, beautiful boy, envied and betrayed brother, seduced stranger, dreamer and interpreter of dreams, economic advisor, and a primary model of the assimilated “court Jew” with multiple allegiances. These many dimensions and their interaction have inspired multiple artistic and cultural reconfigurations that we regard as part and parcel of the reception of the text. The conference “Joseph’s Dreams - Modern Visions” explored the ways in which the story of Joseph has travelled beyond its biblical origins into other historical and cultural settings, acquiring new forms and meanings.

Photo: Jack Shainman Gallery, Adi Nes image of Joseph.
 

Program

October 29, 2017

  • 9:00-9:15 Opening Remarks, Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University
  • 9:15-9:55 Robert Alter, UC Berkeley
    The Joseph Story as Bildungsroman
  • 10-10:40 Ron Hendel, UC Berkeley
    Tangled Visions in the Joseph Narrative: J, E, and P
  • coffee break
  • 11-11:40 Itamar Lurie, Israel Psychoanalytic Society
    Joseph’s Dialogic Dreams: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
  • 11:40-12:20 Eve Krakowski, Princeton University
    Yūsuf’s Dreams in Early Judeo-Arabic Exegesis
  • lunch
  • 1-1:40 Vivian Liska, University of Antwerp
    Else Lasker-Schüler’s Prince Jussuf of Thebes
  • 1:40-2:20 Russell Berman, Stanford University
    The New Deal Against the Grain: Thomas Mann’s Joseph the Provider
  • break
  • 2:30-3:10 Mark Gelber, Ben Gurion University
    "The voice is the voice of Jacob.” (Gen 27:  22) Biblical and Other Voices:  Thomas Mann’s Joseph Novels
  • 3:10-3:50 Chana Kronfeld, UC Berkeley
    Rewriting Joseph’s Dreams: Promise and Jeopardy, Promise as Jeopardy
  • 4:00-5:15 Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University and Ilana Pardes, The Hebrew University
    Joseph as Double Agent: From Genesis to Prisoners of War and concluding remarks

Conference Poster

Click here to download the Joseph's Dreams conference poster.