Dr. Ayala Amir
I earned my Ph.D. at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where I taught for many years. What I like about teaching is the opportunity for dialogue. The intimate atmosphere of the department at Bar Illan allows for my preferable kind of teaching, which is discussion rather than frontal lectures. For me, learning is not a systematic, linear, accumulation of knowledge. In my view, knowledge and understanding come from different directions; something that is perceived eludes and than is unexpectedly reacquired – a dynamic which a good dialogue in class always illustrates. Everything I have researched recently was stimulated from my teaching experience, including the book I wrote on the American writer Raymond Carver, whose stories I taught in introductory classes to fiction. The book reflects my interest in modern fiction and theory of fiction, which have led me to the encounter between literature and the visual arts, especially photography.
CV
Higher Education
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Ph.D. Hebrew University of Jerusalem awarded with highest distinction of summa cum laude.
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2004 |
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M.A. in Comparative Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, magna cum laude.
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1994 |
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B.A. in Comparative Literature and Jewish Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, magna cum laude. |
1989 |
Academic Appointments
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2008-present
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Lecturer |
Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University |
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2002-present
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Instructor, Writer and Teaching Coordinator
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Department of Literature, Language and the Arts, Open University of Israel |
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2012-2013
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Lecturer |
General Studies, Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center |
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1995-2009
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Lecturer
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Department of Comparative Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. |
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2003-2004 |
Lecturer |
Department of Literature, Beit Berl College. |
Scholarly Positions outside the Institution
Membership in the editorial board of the Raymond Carver Review (Following the publication of an article in issue no. 1 of this journal).
Participation in Scientific Conferences
- Active Participation
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October 2021 |
Pitchbook in Time, International Conference, Tel Aviv University |
In and Out of Time: Innocence, Loss and Nostalgia in Photography Books of Children in the Kibbutz
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December 2019 |
Hebrew Literature Conference, The Open University.
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Photographed Books for Children in the Kibbutz. |
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July 2019 |
The V International Flann O'Brien Conference, University College, Dublin, Ireland.
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"'The Poor Man's Wisdom": Flann O'Brien's Translations into Hebrew. |
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April 2019 |
Holocaust and Genocide Bar-Ilan University.
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Genocide in the Writing of J.M. Coetzee. |
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July 2017 |
ACLA Conference, Utrecht, Holland. |
A New Kind of Negative: Absence, Responsibility and Empathy in the Photograph-Text Encounter. |
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June 2017 |
NAPH Conference,
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"And I was this girl": Photography in Israeli Children Books in the 1950's-1970's. |
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July 2016 |
WPA Conference: Council of Writing Program Administers, Raleigh, North Carolina.
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A Program of Academic Writing for Literature Students. |
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November 2015 |
International Conference of MMLA (Midwest Modern Language Association) – Columbus, Ohio.
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Memoire and Short Story: The Case of 'My Father's Life' by Raymond Carver. |
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June 2015 |
NAPH Conference, Memphis, Tennessee.
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Space and Memory" in 'The Seven' by Nathan Shaham |
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November |
Iinternational Conference of MMLA,
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The Horror of the Interior: Toward a Spatial Reading of Neorealist American Fiction. |
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May 2011 |
International Conference of ALA (American Literature Association) – Boston
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Body and Empathy in the Two Versions of (Carver's) 'So Much Water So Close to Home. |
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March 2011 |
Photography and Literature:
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Empty Center of Consciousness: Photography and the Representation of Consciousness in Modern Fiction. |
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June 2010 |
Literary and Artistic Representations – The 24th Inter-University Conference for Hebrew Literature Research at the Open University.
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Word and Image in Yeshayahu Koren's Fiction |
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January 2010 |
The Other in Literature, Theatre and Philosophy, Bar Ilan University.
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The Others in Simone de Beauvoir's 'Monologue. |
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May 2008 |
International Conference of ALA,
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Raymond Carver's Cliché and the Photographic Glimpse. |
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May 2005 |
Literature Writing Itself,
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Ekphrasis and Empathy |
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May 2003 |
Popular and Canonical, The Hebrew University. |
The Cliché in Flaubert and Robbe-Grillet. |
Publications
Thesis and Dissertation
Ph.D. Thesis – Seeing and Meaning: A Reading of Raymond Carver's Stories
Advisor: Prof. Baruch Hochman
M. A. Thesis – The Fiction of J"M Coetzee.
Advisor: Prof. Shimon Sandbank
Scientific Books (Refereed)
The Visual Poetics of Raymond Carver. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield (Lexington Books), 2010. 230 pages. Paperback Edition: 2012.
Articles in Refereed Journals
"Tracing Back my Own Footsteps": Space, Walking and Memory in 'The Seven' by Nathan Shaham." BGU Review (Summer 2017) (Attached).
http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/heksherim/Pages/2017.aspx
"Through a Torn Net: Repetition and Singularity the Fiction of Yeshayahu Koren." Mikan: Journal for Hebrew Literary Studies 16 (2016): 106-125. (Attached)
"What Used to Lie Outside the Frame: Boundaries of Photograph, Subjectivity and Fiction in Three Novels by J.M. Coetzee," Journal of Literary Studies (JLS) 26.4 (December 2013): 59-79.
"Sunt lacrimae rerum: Ekphrasis and Empathy in Three Encounters between a Text and a Picture," Word and Image, Vol. 25:3 (2009): 232-242.
"I don't do motion shots": Photography, Movement and Change in Raymond Carver's Stories," The Raymond Carver Review 1 (Winter 2007): 33-52.
Chapters/Articles in Books
"'Days of Sun, Playing, and Dreams': Innocence, Loss, and Nostalgia in Photography Books of Children in the Kibbutz," in Photography in Children's Literature. Edited by Elina Druker and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, 255-273. Amsterdam: John Benjamis Publishing company, 2023.
"Crossing Literary Borderlines in "A Simple Heart" by Gustav Flaubert" in Borderlines: Essays on artistic and conceptual practices of mapping places. Edited by Edwin Seroussi and Ruthie Abeliovich, 58-68. De Gruyter Press, 2019. (Attached)
"Small Good Things: Symbols and Descriptive Details in Raymond Carver's Short Fiction," Critical Insights: Raymond Carver. Hackensack, NJ: Salem Press/EBSCO, 2013.
"Teaching Carver at the Intersection of Narrative Study and Visual Discourse." In Carver Across the Curriculum: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching the Fiction and Poetry of Raymond Carver, edited by Paul Grant,139-151. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.
"Short History of Cliché or Restore the Image's Lost Parts." In Popular and Canonical: Literary Dialogues, edited by Yael Shapira, Omri Herzog and Tamar S. Hess, 31-39. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2007 (Hebrew).
Open University Books
Author of six chapters in A Guide for Landmarks in Western Literature: Cervantes, Homer, Sappho, Ovid, Virgil. Defoe (2019)
Author of three chapters in the new edition of "The Poetics of Fiction" (2016).
Co-author of two chapters in Diengot, Nilli (ed.). Landmarks of Literary Criticism in the West, 273-351, 455-528.
Book Reviews
"Harsh and Hopeful World: Review of Gordon Lish, Collected Fiction," The American Book Review 33.4 (May-June 2012).
Accepted for Publication
"‘Endeavoring to speak his own language’: Insights from Hebrew Translations of Flann O’Brien," Palimsets, Cork University Press 2022.
Work in Progress
Photographed Books for Children – The Case of Photography Books of Children in the Kibbutz (Proposal submitted and accepted).
Last Updated Date : 13/12/2023
