From Fleshpots to Field Greens: Scampering Between the Cauldrons in Agnon’s Shira

“From Fleshpots to Field Greens” identifies Manfred Herbst’s perseveration between vegetarian victuals and carnivorous cravings as the key to his professional and existential dilemma, to his early courtship and later-life intimacy with Henrietta his spouse on the one hand, his attraction to Shira the elusive obstetric nurse on the other, and their regard for one another. Through literary analysis this article investigates the implications of the protagonist’s repeated transitions from beets to beef and back, whether in the kitchen, the bedroom or the neonatal waiting room. Methodologically the examination traces and analyzes the contexts of a recurring refrain in the novel in order to decipher the central character’s affinity for flesh on the gastronomic, erotic and artistic planes, and contributes an interpretation of its significance in the triangular relationship specific to Agnon’s novel, Shira.