This study analyses the intellectual output of Adya Gur Horon (Adolphe Gourevitch, 1907-1972), a Ukrainian-born, Russian-speaking, French-educated ideologue of modern Hebrew nationalism, and one of the founding fathers of the anti-Zionist ideology known as "Canaanism", whose heyday was mid 20th-century Israel. The dissertation's starting point is that if the "Canaanites" (otherwise the Young Hebrews) declared themselves to be above all a national movement independent of, and opposed to, Zionism, they should be analysed as such. In treating "Canaanite" support for the existence of an indigenous Hebrew nation in Palestine/Israel as equally legitimate as the Zionist defence of the Jews' national character (both ultimately constituting "imagined communities"), this work comes to the conclusion that the movement should indeed be classified as a fully-fledged alternative to Zionism; not a radical variation of the latter, but rather a rival national ideology. My chief assertion is that the key to a proper understanding of "Canaanism" is Horon's unique vision of the ancient Hebrew past, which constitutes the "Canaanite" foundational myth that stands in sharp contradiction to its Zionist counterpart. Furthermore, I demonstrate that Zionism and "Canaanism" are incompatible not only because they differ over history, but also because some of the basic socio-political notions they employ, such as national identity or nation-formation, are discordant. A methodology such as this has never before been applied to the "Canaanite" ideology, since most of those who have studied the movement treat "Canaanism" either as an artistic avant-garde or as a fringe variation of Zionism. This study demonstrates that, despite being sidelined by most researchers of "Canaanism", Adya Horon is beyond doubt the leading figure of the "Canaanite" movement. I believe that only by giving due weight to the divergence in national historiographies between "Canaanism" and Zionism can we grasp the former's independence from the latter, both intellectually and politically, without negating "Canaanism's" complex relationship with Zionism and the sometimes significant overlaps between the two. The dissertation makes systematic use of many newly discovered materials, including Horon's writings from the early 1930s to the early 1970s (some of them extremely rare), as well as his private archive. My study thus sits at the intersection of three fields of academic enquiry: nationalism studies; language-based area studies; and historiographical discourse analysis.

Die Arbeit untersucht Differenzdiskurse zu zwei historischen sozialen Identitäten im Manden (Westafrika) anhand mündlich und schriftlich tradierter Texte unterschiedlicher Sprachen (Bambara, Französisch, Deutsch, Englisch) und Genres (Reisebericht, Preislied (fasa), Epos (maana), Roman, Märchen (nsiirin), Lied (donkili)), die zwischen dem 14. bis 21. Jahrhundert erschienen sind. Die Differenz von horon, dem Edlen, Freien und jeli, dem 'Handhaber des Wortes' wird dabei höchst unterschiedlich als komplexer Beziehungsmodus diskursiv und performativ hervorgebracht und gestaltet. Als uneigentliche Differenz bildet sie sich unter der Prämisse des Schamprinzips vor allem entlang der jeweils vorgenommenen Zuschreibungen von freigiebigem Renommee-Suchenden und erbittendem Panegyriker. Die analysierten Texte, die den Zeitraum von Beginn des mittelalterlichen Mali-Reiches bis Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts als intradiegetisches Setting haben, verhandeln die Differenz entsprechend spezifischer Wirkungsintentionen von einer Außenseiter-Perspektive, z.T. zur Legitimation kolonialer Absichten oder von einer Insider-Perspektive aus, um, teils politisch motiviert, das eigene kulturelle Erbe zu valorisieren oder auch um (historische) Mißstände anzuprangern. Dabei wird die Differenz von jeli und hↄrↄn unterschiedlich ausgestaltet, mit dem horon als Helden (ŋana, cεfarin), König (mansa, faama), Gastgeber (jatigi) und dem jeli als Meisterredner/sänger (ŋaara), Reputations-Verantwortlichen, Klienten des jatigi. Literatur wie Differenz wird als rhetorischer Ort kreativer Verhandlungen, strategischer (Neu)schöpfungen betrachtet, durch welche die jeweiligen Akteure spezifische Interessen verfolgen und damit variabel an Diskursen und damit an Wirklichkeiten mitgestalten. Jeli und horon verändern sich als literarische Konstruktion in Abhängigkeit von ästhetischen und ideologischen Strategien. / The present work examines discourses of difference about two historical social identities in Manden (West Africa) using oral and written literary texts of different languages (Bambara, French, German, English) and genres (travelogue, praise song (fasa), epic (maana), novel, fairy tale, song (dↄnkili)), published between the 14th to the 21st century. The difference between horon, the noble, the free, and jeli, the 'handler of the word', is produced and shaped in a highly differentiated way as a complex mode of relation(ship) in a discursive and performative manner. As an improper difference it is formed under the premise of the principle of shame, especially along the attributions made between the generous rewards seeker and the panegyrical requester. The analysed texts, which have the period from the beginning of the medieval Mali empire to the middle of the 20th century as an intradiegetic setting, negotiate the difference according to specific intended effects from an outsider perspective, eg. for purposes of legitimacy of colonial intentions or from an insider perspective, partly politically motivated, in order to valorise one's own cultural heritage or to denounce (historical) grievances. The difference between jeli and hↄrↄn appears in varying ways, with the horon as hero (ŋana, cεfarin), king (mansa, faama), host (jatigi) and the jeli as master-singer/-orator (ŋaara), reputational entrepreneur, client of a jatigi. Literature and Difference are considered both as a rhetorical place of creative negotiation, of strategic (re)creation, through which the respective actors pursue specific interests and thereby participate in shaping discourses and thus realities. The jeli, who is at the same time performer, narrator and protagonist of many narratives, and the horon, determined by his status and his ethos, change as a literary construction depending on aesthetic and ideological strategies.