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Balagan (Etgar Keret)

Par Etgar Keret
Publié par Clifford Armion le 13/06/2014

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Chaque année, les invités des Assises Internationales du Roman rédigent la définition d'un mot de leur choix : il s'agit ici du mot "balagan", défini par l'auteur israélien Etgar Keret.

Balagan, a word that immigrated to the Hebrew language from Yiddish, means "total chaos." But this word is unique, because contrary to the implied negative value the concept has in other languages, the subtext of balagan is positive. True, that positiveness is not overt—a bit like a proud parent trying to hide a smile from his mischief-making son—but it is completely there. But chaos for a society that is itself full of balagan is nothing less than proof of vitality and passion. In a place where people push and shove in line, where children insist on drawing on walls and not on paper, where a briefcase holds stained income tax reports lying between a pastrami sandwich and a piece of graph paper with the beginnings of a poem on it, that's where you'll find human liberty, the liberty that both Yiddish and Hebrew have always held sacred.

 

Pour citer cette ressource :

Etgar Keret, "Balagan (Etgar Keret)", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), juin 2014. Consulté le 04/11/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/litterature/entretiens-et-textes-inedits/balagan-etgar-keret-