Rabbi Nachman of Braslav in the Context of the Romantic Literary Tradition

This lecture will focus on the stories of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav and how they reflect the traditions and innovations of contemporary Romantic literary tradition. Even though Rabbi Nachman was not part and parcel of the European literary establishment of his day who were writing in Russian, German, French and English, his stories reflect many of the basic trends and innovations of contemporary Romantic literary tradition. We will try to bring concrete examples of this, and to show, through a short but concise literary analysis, how some of his most important stories reflect the concerns of other writers and poets of this period.