Collecter, traduire et réécrire. Martin Buber et les récits hassidiques

Abstract

For almost half a century, Martin Buber collected, translated and edited Hasidic stories. This impressive body of work contributed to the knowledge and recognition of Hasidism in European culture. The revelation of this rich literary heritage played an important cultural and political role in the Renaissance of the Jewish culture in the 20th century. Buber was equally criticised for his romantic, aestheticised and idealised view of Hasidism. Buber rewrote the Hasidic stories by transforming them into Volksmärchen similar to German popular literature. He also tends to extract them from their original linguistic and religious context, omitting their Kabbalistic dimension, as in the stories of the Baal Shem Tov and Nahman of Bratslav