The Social Landscape of Yiddish Literature

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

This panel will focus on "extra-literary," non-belletristic components in the formation of Yiddish literary culture: non-fictional genres in Yiddish journalism, the literary manifesto, and the task of the translator. Among the authors included in this discussion are the master Yiddish journalist Ab. Cahan (Ellen Kellman), the Yiddish-language avant-garde collecting in Warsaw and Lodz (Aleandra Hoffman), and the unexpected affinities between the stories of Sholem Aleichem and Langston Hughes(Theodore L. Steinberg)). By focusing on the cultural mechanisms instrumental to the distribution and reception of Yiddish literature, this discussion will demonstrate how social embedded Yiddish modernism has been historically, and how integral this literature is to the socialization of Yiddish culture.

Sub Unit

• Yiddish Studies

Chair

• Miriam Udel, Emory University

Individual Presentations

• Abraham Cahan and the Advent of 'Public Service' Features in the FORVERTS - Ellen Deborah Kellman, Brandeis University

• Yiddish Modernist Manifestos - Alexandra Hoffman, University of Michigan

• It's Simple, Tevya - Theodore L. Steinberg, SUNY Fredonia