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<p>While many writers and scholars have long&#xa0;considered poetry to be the vehicle of choice for mystical expression, in recent years, a series of novels and short works of literary fiction have been published in English that evoke&#xa0;the prose of the <i>Zohar</i>, a seminal medieval Jewish kabbalistic anthology. Engaging with the Lacanian conception of the flow of <i>jouissance</i> in mystical writing, as well as with Julia Kristeva’s theory of poetic language, here I aim to show how the poetic language and narrative prose of the <i>Zohar</i> have been adapted by contemporary women writers in their own works, constituting a mystical ‘feminist poetics.’ Focusing on Australian author Geraldine Brooks’s novel, <i>People of the Book</i> (2008), and on American writer Joan Leegant’s short story, ‘The Book of Splendor’ (2017), this article demonstrates how and why their fictional works aesthetically appropriate the <i>Zohar</i>, freeing it from its former status as an exclusively religious text. I argue that in both works of fiction, poetry—whether religious or secular—is perceived as a sacred means of attaining a mystical experience, equivalent to the <i>jouissance</i> induced by the poetic language of the <i>Zohar</i>.</p>

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Literary evocations of the Zohar in Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book and in Joan Leegant’s ‘The Book of Splendor’

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月1日

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  • Merav Fima

摘要

While many writers and scholars have long considered poetry to be the vehicle of choice for mystical expression, in recent years, a series of novels and short works of literary fiction have been published in English that evoke the prose of the Zohar, a seminal medieval Jewish kabbalistic anthology. Engaging with the Lacanian conception of the flow of jouissance in mystical writing, as well as with Julia Kristeva’s theory of poetic language, here I aim to show how the poetic language and narrative prose of the Zohar have been adapted by contemporary women writers in their own works, constituting a mystical ‘feminist poetics.’ Focusing on Australian author Geraldine Brooks’s novel, People of the Book (2008), and on American writer Joan Leegant’s short story, ‘The Book of Splendor’ (2017), this article demonstrates how and why their fictional works aesthetically appropriate the Zohar, freeing it from its former status as an exclusively religious text. I argue that in both works of fiction, poetry—whether religious or secular—is perceived as a sacred means of attaining a mystical experience, equivalent to the jouissance induced by the poetic language of the Zohar.