Biography in the Shade of the Myth

בעקבות סיפור חיים מאת אנטיה שפירא

Abstract

The essay provides a critique of Anita Shapira's biography on Brenner. It examines the problems of creating a biography of the Jewish canonic author, whose literary and fictional work is itself somewhat biographic, and the problems of discerning between the "real" Brenner and his characters; all the while dealing with periods from Brenner's life of which there is almost no documentation, and with the well established myth of Brenner, the rag-wearing, depressed, poor and neglected visionary. The goal of the essay is to acknowledge the mythologizing aspects of Shapira's Brenner, and to bring forth a clearer and more accurate perspective of the famous author. The essay is divided into three chapters: the first is concerned with the problem of the biographic aspects of Brenner's writing. The second part unravels Brenner's Russian Narodnik influences, which Shapira ignores while phrasing Brenner's historical and Zionist stance. The third chapter of the essay deals with the manner in which Shapira analyzes Brenner's famous depressions, and the piercing visions that accompanied them. Brinker calls for a more subtle, analysis of Brenner, which would mark his literary, political, and historical stances not as the visions of a "holy fool" or a madman, but as an intellectual, well-thought-out work, despite the rags it's author is wearing.