Maya Dover-Daffan, Ph.D. candidate, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Ms. Dover-Daffan’s dissertation “From the Abyss” compares the personal Holocaust diaries of three Yiddish authors, Yehoshua Perle, Itzhak Katzanelson and Liebe (Leyb) Rochman. The issue of literary form occupied these authors, who already had a rich literary career, and now for the first time in their lives they were compelled to deal with the terrible events of their own lives in real time. By examining the literary forms and patterns of description imprinted in the text, Ms. Dover-Daffan intends to trace the conscious processes that guided the authors in their dire moments, between life and death. In this way she also hopes to convey the voices of the writers, who wrote blindly from the darkness of their present, to their intended future audience; thus in a sense, implementing their will.
In addition to her native Hebrew and knowledge of English, Ms. Dover-Daffan has studied Yiddish throughout her academic career and passed her reading proficiency exams in French.
Ms. Dover-Daffan has published several articles concerning her research and has also translated one of the authors’ wartime writings from Yiddish into Hebrew (Chulyot; Legacy; Bishvil Ha’Zikaron). Her dissertation supervisor is Professor Ilana Rosen.