Robert Alter
Robert Alter | |
---|---|
Born | 1935 |
Education | Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, Bachelor of Arts |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Scholar of the bible as literature, university teacher, hebraist |
Employer | |
Awards |
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Position held | president (1996–1997) |
Robert Bernard Alter (born 1935)[1] is an American professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967.[2] He published his translation of the Hebrew Bible in 2018.
Biography[]
Robert Alter earned his bachelor's degree in English (Columbia University, 1957), and his master's degree (1958) and doctorate (1962) from Harvard University in comparative literature. He started his career as a writer at Commentary Magazine, where he was for many years a contributing editor. He has written twenty-three books, and is noted most recently for his translation of the entire Hebrew Bible.[3] He lectures on topics varying from Biblical episodes to Kafka's modernism and Hebrew literature.
Biblical studies[]
One of Alter's important contributions is the introduction of the type scene into contemporary scholarly Hebrew Bible studies. An example of a type scene is that of a man meeting a young woman at a well, whom he goes on to marry; this scene occurs twice in Genesis and once in Exodus, and, according to Alter, distortedly in 1 Samuel and in the Book of Ruth.[4]
Honors[]
Alter has served as an active member of the of the Library of Congress, and is currently president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1966 and 1978.[5] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1986.[1] He was a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, and Old Dominion Fellow at Princeton University. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Jewish Review of Books.
Awards[]
His book The Art of Biblical Narrative won the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought.[6] In 2009, he was the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award (Los Angeles Times) for lifetime contribution to American letters.[7][8] He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by Yale University in 2010.[9] He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of Hebrew University (2015).[10]
Selected works[]
- Translations of the Hebrew Bible
- The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1999, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-32077-4
- The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, 2004, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-01955-1
- The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary, 2007, W.W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-06226-7
- The Book of Genesis, translation by Robert Alter, illustrated by R. Crumb, 2009, W.W. Norton (first edition, 1996), ISBN 0-393-06102-7
- The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes: A Translation with Commentary, 2010, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-06812-9
- Ancient Israel: The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings: A Translation with Commentary, 2013, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-08269-5
- Strong As Death Is Love: Song of Songs Ruth Esther Jonah And Daniel: A Translation with Commentary, 2015, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-24304-4
- The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, 2018, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-29249-5
- Other works
- Rogue's Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel, 1965, Harvard University Press
- Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre, 1975, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-02755-8
- A Lion for Love: A Critical Biography of Stendhal, in collaboration with Carol Cosman, 1979, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-04124-8
- The Art of Biblical Narrative, 1981, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00427-X
- Motives for Fiction, 1984, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-58762-5
- The Art of Biblical Poetry, 1985, Basic Books, ISBN 0-465-00431-8
- The Literary Guide to the Bible Edited by Alter and Frank Kermode, 1987, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-87531-9
- The Invention of Hebrew Prose: Modern Fiction and the Language Revolution, 1988, University of Washington Press.
- Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age, 1990, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-31499-5
- Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem, 1991, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-60663-0
- Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Novel, 2005, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10802-8
- Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible, 2010, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-12881-2
- The Art of Bible Translation, 2019, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691181493
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Book of Members, 1780–Present: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ^ "UC Berkeley Department of Near Eastern Literature". Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ^ Alter, Robert (2018). The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary. New York: WW Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-29249-7.
- ^ Alter, Robert (1981). The Art of Biblical Narrative. New York: Basic Books. p. 60. ISBN 0-465-00427-X.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation A Fellows Page". Archived from the original on 20 November 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2008.
- ^ "Robert Alter". Washington University in St. Louis. Archived from the original on 4 July 2008. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
- ^ "Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award". University of California, Berkeley. 22 April 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
- ^ "Poetic Master of Biblical Translation Receives Award". Jewish Journal. 22 April 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
- ^ "Citations for Recipients of Honorary Degrees at Yale University 2010". Yale News. 24 May 2010.
- ^ "Director Receives Degree in Honor of Hebrew University 90th Celebration | Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology".
External links[]
- CV on UCBerkeley's website
- Biography at Washington University in St. Louis
- The Five Books of Moses review at The New Yorker
- The Five Books of Moses review at The Washington Post
- The Five Books of Moses review by Alan Jacobs in First Things (Aug/Sept. 2005)
- The Book of Psalms review at The New Yorker
- Audio interview with Robert Alter
- Robert Alter's articles in the London Review of Books
- The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols., reviewed by Gary A. Rendsburg at Moment Magazine
- Sample chapter of Alter's translation of Genesis
- 1935 births
- Living people
- Columbia College (New York) alumni
- Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
- University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- American biblical scholars
- Jewish American academics
- Translators of the Bible into English
- Jewish translators of the Bible
- Translators from Hebrew
- Translators to English
- American literary critics
- Bible commentators
- Old Testament scholars