An Impostor's Diary: Sipur David Ha-Reuveni's Novel Literary Genre and Complex Relationship with Truth
David Ha-Reuveni, a sixteenth-century Jewish man of unknown origin claiming to be a prince of the Lost Tribes of Israel, was the author of one of the earliest—and most puzzling—of extant autobiographical documents of early modern Jewish culture. This work, a diary of an impostor, the literary aspect...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2025, Volume: 49, Issue: 2, Pages: 474-503 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | David Ha-Reuveni, a sixteenth-century Jewish man of unknown origin claiming to be a prince of the Lost Tribes of Israel, was the author of one of the earliest—and most puzzling—of extant autobiographical documents of early modern Jewish culture. This work, a diary of an impostor, the literary aspects of which have received little scholarly attention to date, is a fascinating case study in self-fashioning. Employing the category of genre, and carefully analyzing this composition's layered truth claim, this paper mines Ha-Reuveni's scrappy, inventive employment of existing literary models. It examines this new kind of literary creation for a new perspective into the construction of identity, sincerity, and deceit—reflective of one extraordinary man, and of the culture and discourse within which he operated. |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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