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American professor
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 , where he was for many years a contributing editor. He has written twenty-three books, most recently his translation of the entire
Hebrew Bible .
[3] He lectures on topics ranging from biblical episodes[
vague ] to
Kafka 's
modernism and
Hebrew literature .
Biblical studies
One of Alter's 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[
clarification needed ] in
1 Samuel and the
Book of Ruth .
[4]
Honors
Alter has served as an active member of the Council of Scholars of the
Library of Congress and as the 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] In 2001, he was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society .
[6] He was a senior fellow of the
National Endowment for the Humanities , a fellow at the
Israel 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.
[7] In 2009, he was the recipient of the
Robert Kirsch Award (
Los Angeles Times ) for lifetime contribution to American letters.
[8]
[9] He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree by
Yale University in 2010.
[10] He is a Doctor Honoris Causa of
Hebrew University (2015).
[11]
Berkeley Citation (2010)
[12]
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
Nabokov and the Real World: Between Appreciation and Defense , 2021,
Princeton University Press ,
ISBN
0-691-21193-0
Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon , 2023, Yale University Press,
ISBN
0-300-25017-7
References
External links
International National Academics People Other