Recovering Yiddishland: Threshold Moments in American Literature (Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.18 (746 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0815631510 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 326 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-21 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Yiddish Literature in America This book is unique among recent studies of Yiddish literature, bringing to light the poetry of Mikhl Licht, Abrahan Cahan's YEKL, Anzia Yezierka's HUNGRY HEARTS, and others. Bachman injects herself and her coming to Yiddish language and literature; she is not averse to using a first person point of
Bachman is assistant professor of English at Spalding University. . Merle L. Her articles and poetry have been published in such journals as Talisman and Jewish Book World
Merle Bachman has written an important volume on the place of Yiddish in American Jewish life and thought. As she shares her close readings, we see her creating and inhabiting a "Yiddishland" of her own. -- Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter "Bachman weaves colorful threads of personal, often poetic, reflection into her scholarly analysis. The literary figures she studies become her restlesss soulmates as she comes to understand that even in its heyday, "Yiddishland" was always "a place neither home nor exile." So it is for Bachman herself-and for all of us who seek to connect ourselves to that once-vi
Rejecting conventional literary history, the book spotlights "threshold texts" in the unjustly forgotten literary project of these writers--texts that reveal unexpected and illuminating critiques of Americanization. Merle Lyn Bachman takes a fresh look at Abraham Cahan's Yekl and Anzia Yezierska's Hungry Hearts, tracing in them a re-inscription of the Yiddish world that various characters seem to be committed to leaving behind. It reconstructs "Yiddishland" as a cultural space produced by Yiddish immigrant writers from the 1890s through the 1930s, largely within the sphere of New York. According to traditional narratives of assimilation, in the bargain made for an American identity, Jews freely surrendered Yiddish language and culture. Finally, Bachman discusses the modernist poet Mikhl Likht, whose simultaneous embrace of American literature and resistance to assimilating into English marked him as the supreme "threshold" poet. --Or did they? Recovering 'Yiddishland' seeks to "return" readers to a threshold where Americanization also meant ambivalence and resistance. Conscious of the ris