In both style and substance, Hebrew literature, from the second half of the nineteenth century to well into the twentieth, was unmistakably influenced by Russian prose and poetry. Lapidus presents nine case studies illustrating that influence. For each case, she answers three questions: How, precisely, is the literary influence expressed? With what belletristic, intellectual, ideological, or philosophical category may it be connected? Finally, what were its primary sources, even before the influencing author absorbed them from authentic Russian culture?
Specifically, she explores the influence of Russian language, literature, and culture upon Y. H. Brenner; the influence of the Russian version of decadence, as found in Turgenev, on Yeshaya Bershadsky; comic and satiric means of characterization in Gogol and Mendele Mocher Sefarim; the relationship between classic autobiographical novels of Russian literature, primarily the Tolstoy trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, and Y. D. Berkowitz’s Chapters of Childhood; the impact of the poetry of Afanasii Fet on Hayyim Lensky; Russian influences on two novels by Hayyim Hazaz; and the poetic influence of Mikhail Lermontov on the works of the young Saul Tchernichowsky.
A theoretical introductory chapter discusses the contributions of Harold Bloom, Julia Kristeva, and others to the contemporary study of influence.