Hidden Scripts: The Social Evolution of Alterman's “Don't You Give Them Guns”
2014; Berghahn Books; Volume: 29; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.3167/isr.2014.290102
ISSN2159-0389
Autores Tópico(s)Italian Fascism and Post-war Society
ResumoNathan Alterman's poem “Don't You Give Them Guns” echoed European post–World War I anti-war literature. Curiously, the poem turned into a key text in a ritual instituted by members of the elite Jewish underground fighting force, the Palmach, which was established during World War II. This article is an attempt to understand how a pacifist poem came to be used by Jewish-Israeli soldiers at the heart of the 1948 War of Independence. In terms of theory, the analysis dwells on the relations between text and social context, arguing that alternative social ideas conceal themselves in poetry and other literary forms. These texts can be likened to undercurrents that preserve hidden social concerns. To follow the changing role of such texts, the article considers the fate of “Don't You Give Them Guns” from its birth in 1934 to its later manifestations in the early twenty-first century.
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