Die dialogische Struktur im Werk von Elazar Benyoëtz

Abstract

The dialogic structure in Benyoëtz's aphorism and specifically the conspicuous dominance of the "Du" has already been illuminated several times in the context of letters and quotations. The essay sheds light on it as a specific feature of his work. On the one hand, it establishes the connection with the history of the genre of aphorism, where quotation and thou-aphorism are deeply rooted. On the other hand, it combines this structure with syntactic and grammatical observations. For quotations, the aspects of remembrance, visualization and memorial are identified as their main functions – from the perspective of both the quoted and the quoter. For the thou-aphorism, the essay provides an elaboration on moral as well as religious authority, on the author-reader relationship, on soliloquy and on a visionary “thou”. Examples of the determining grammatical structures (imperative, negation, conditional clause) are presented and analyzed.