RT Article
T1 An Impostor's Diary: Sipur David Ha-Reuveni's Novel Literary Genre and Complex Relationship with Truth
JF AJS review
VO 49
IS 2
SP 474
OP 503
A1 Sharon-Pinto, Ossanat
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1950154580
AB 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.
DO 10.1353/ajs.2025.a974646