Language as Oikos : The Case of Margalit Matitiahu's Poetry

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the poetic works by Margalit Matitiahu, written in Judeo-Spanish, by reference to the interdisciplinary reflection on home as proposed by Tadeusz Sławek, Aleksandra Kunce and Zbigniew Kadłubek (2013) and defined by them as oikology. Such a reading of Matitiahu's poems reveals multi-layered nature of her oikos - i.e. home or place of belonging in physical , cultural and symbolic meaning - which combines her present Israeli cultural identity with the history and cultural legacy of her Sephardic ancestors. The central aspect to be analyzed is the Judeo-Spanish language, chosen by her as a means of expression in times when it is regarded as severely endangeded.