Journeys of Imagination
Raba Bar Bar Hana's Voyages at Sea: An Interpretation of the Oceanic Adventures of a Jewish Sinbad
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Tzachi Cohen OAC
Among the legends scattered throughout the Talmud, are collections of legends revolving around a single figure or dealing with a common theme. One of the groups of legends that has received a prominent and special reference throughout the generations, are the 'Stories Rabba Bar Bar Hana', fifteen stories, which appear in the Babylonian Talmud. Extending from tales seafarers told RBBH, continuing in miraculous visions that he saw of the various animals and natural elements, and their end in what was revealed to him in his travels at sea and in the desert. Talmudic commentators have been trying to offer an interpretation of these stories. The spectrum of interpretations stretches from deliberate exaggerations intended to provoke and sharpen the students' listening, through sophisticated allegories, riddles and even personal dreams and prophecies. This paper briefly presents the series of stories dealing with the sea voyages of RBBH and the range of interpretations offered to them - and examines new possibilities for interpreting this sequence of stories. Assuming the stories have a message that can be deciphered both in their literary reading, and out of attention to the context in which they were told, of an independent Jewish community within a semi-sympathetic space. We dwell on the central dichotomies around which these stories are woven, on the manner in which they require the biblical verses, on their central symbols and on the religious and cosmological claims hidden within them.
Tipu’s Tiger and the Sociology of Literature: Empire and Colonial Contexts in Tania James’ Loot (2023)
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Kirsten Møllegaard
Tipu’s Tiger is a unique semi-automaton of great symbolic value exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It depicts a near life-size Bengal tiger mauling a prostrate English soldier. Inside the tiger’s body is an organ, which can be turned by an outside shaft to produce sounds in imitation of the soldier’s moans and the tiger’s growls. This sophisticated object was among the war loot taken in 1799 from the palace of Tipu Sultan, the last king of Mysore in Southern India, by the British East India Company’s soldiers. Tipu’s Tiger is estimated to have been made in India in the 1790s. It combines European (most likely French) technology with Indian craftmanship. Tipu’s Tiger’s emblematic symbolism and colonial contexts are the basis for American writer Tania James’ novel Loot (2023), which intriguingly maps out the sculpture’s creation, cultural significance, and eventual oceanic journey from India to England. In this presentation, I will engage the perspective of the sociology of literature to discuss Tipu’s Tiger as a colonial text, that is, as an artifact within both Indian and British narratives of empire and conquest in conjunction with James’ novel. The sociology of literature is an interdisciplinary approach that situates literary texts within historical, philosophical, and cultural interpretative frames. To this day, museum exhibits of colonial loot are used discursively to tell tales of empire and power. James’ novel politicizes this practice while also making a compelling connection between material culture and literature.
Featured Oceanic Journeys : Survival, Transformation, and the Metaphysical in Yann Martel’s "Life of Pi"
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Alvin Joseph
Yann Martel’s novel "Life of Pi" recounts the extraordinary survival story of Pi Patel, a young boy stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger as his companion. While the novel’s premise is grounded in a literal journey of survival against the ocean’s unpredictable elements, this paper explores how Pi’s oceanic voyage becomes a metaphorical and philosophical journey. The paper argues that the ocean functions as a dual symbol: it reflects both the external struggle for survival and an inner quest for meaning, faith, and transformation. Through his time at sea, Pi undergoes profound physical, mental, and spiritual transformations, facing the duality of reality and illusion, reason and belief, as represented by his two versions of the story. Drawing on theories of survival literature, postcolonialism, and the metaphysical, this paper examines how the oceanic setting in 'Life of Pi" functions as a space for the exploration of human resilience, existential inquiry, and the interplay between narrative and truth. Ultimately, the ocean in "Life of Pi" becomes a symbolic arena where Pi confronts both the forces of nature and the profound depths of his own being.
