Classic Yiddish Fiction

by Ken Frieden

• ISBN13: 9780791426029
• ISBN10: 0791426025
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-02-01
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (SUNY Press)

Summary

Yiddish literature, despite its remarkable achievements during an era bounded by Russian reforms in the 1860s and the First World War, has never before been surveyed by a scholarly monograph in English. Classic Yiddish Fiction provides an overview and interprets the Yiddish fiction of S. Y. Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, and I. L. Peretz. While analyzing their works, Frieden situates these three authors in their literary world and in relation to their cultural contexts. Two or three generations ago, Yiddish was the primary language of Jews in Europe and America. Today, following the Nazi genocide and half a century of vigorous assimilation, Yiddish is sinking into oblivion. By providing a bridge to the lost continent of Yiddish literature, Frieden returns to those European traditions. This journey back to Ashkenazic origins also encompasses broader horizons, since the development of Yiddish culture in Europe and America parallels the history of other ethnic traditions.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables

Preface

Introduction

Abramovitsh

The Grandfather of Yiddish Literature

S. Y. Abramovitsh: Mendele and the Origins of Modern Yiddish Fiction

Satire and Parody in Abramovitsh's Later Fiction

Sholem Aleichem

The Grandson: Trials of a Yiddish Humorist

Sholem Aleichem's "Jewish Novels"

Tevye the Dairyman and His Daughters' Rebellion

Social Criticism in Sholem Aleichem's Monologues

Sholem Aleichem's Monologues of Mastery

Peretz

The Father of Another Literary Family

I. L. Peretz: Monologue and Madness in the Early Stories

Irony in I. L. Peretz's Chassidic Tales

Conclusion

Abbreviations

Selected Bibliography

Index of Authors and Works

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