Wizerunek „talusza” w twórczości Icchaka Dowa Berkowicza

Abstract

In 1904, Yitskhok-Dov Berkovitz published the short story “Talush.” This term came to describe the literary portrayal of a man torn from his natural environment—a theme prevalent in Hebrew prose during that era. Talush evolved into a metaphor for Jews from the diaspora navigating the delicate balance between tradition and the progressive secularization of their world. Scholars, including Gershon Shaked and Avraham Holtz, categorize Berkovitz’s protagonists as “uprooted.” This article aims to compare the destinies of protagonists from previously unexamined stories: “Moshkeli-Hazir,” “Mi-Merhakim,” and “Koah ha-dimyon.” The objective of the author is to assess the extent of their rootlessness and alienation, demonstrating that these character types differ. The analysis of the stories proves that not all of them can be classified as talush.