TY - GEN T1 - Indebted : Capitalism and Religion in the Writings of S. Y. Agnon. A1 - Sagiv, Yonatan LA - English LA - Hebrew PP - Cincinnati PB - Hebrew Union College Press YR - 2016 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_dda_on1356003820 AB - "This is the first book to examine the oeuvre of Shmuel Yosef Agnon, 1966 Nobel laureate in literature, through a reading that combines perspectives from economic theory, semiotics, psychoanalysis, narrative theory, and Jewish and religious studies. Sagiv outlines the vital role economy plays in the construction of religion, subjectivity, language, and thought in Agnon's work, and, accordingly, explores his literary use of images of debt, money, and economy to examine how these themes illuminate other focal points in the canonical author's work, excavating the economic infrastructure of discourses that are commonly considered to reside beyond the economic sphere. Sagiv's analysis of Agnon's work, renowned for its paradoxical articulation of the impact of modernity on traditional Jewish society, exposes an overarching distrust regarding the sustainability of any economic structure. The concrete and symbolic economies surveyed in this project are prone to cyclical crises. Under what Sagiv terms Agnon's "law of permanent debt," the stability and profitability of economies are always temporary. Agnon's literary economy, transgressing traditional closures, together with his profound irony, make it impossible to determine if these economic crises are indeed the product of the break with tradition or, alternatively, if this theodicy is but a fantasy, marking permanent debt as the inherent economic infrastructure of human existence"-- OP - 241 NO - Description based upon print version of record. CN - PJ5053 SN - 9780822981503 SN - 0822981505 SN - 9780822944577 SN - 082294457X KW - Agnon, Shmuel Yosef, : 1887-1970 : Criticism and interpretation. KW - Agnon, Shmuel Yosef, : 1887-1970 KW - Economics in literature. KW - Économie politique dans la littérature. KW - RELIGION : Judaism : General. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : Jewish. KW - Economics in literature KW - Electronic books. KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. ER -