Contrasting Styles, Common Themes: A Taste of Modern Yiddish Prose
Tuition: $240 | YIVO members: $180**
This is a live, online course held twice a week on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, assignments, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in Yiddish.
Instructor: Eugene Orenstein
This mini-seminar is devoted to the development of a modern Yiddish prose style as seen in stories by Sholem Asch, Dovid Bergelson, Yosef Opatoshu, and Moyshe Nadir. We will place these texts within the literary-historical context of their time and analyze the various writing styles and problems exhibited in them.
Yiddish Level:
This course, conducted in Yiddish, is designed for upper intermediate and advanced Yiddish students, or those with a strong ability to understand written and spoken Yiddish.
Course Materials:
שלום אַש, נאָװעלן, פֿאַרלאַג ייִדיש בוך, װאַרשע, 1958: „אין אַ קאַרנאַװאַל־נאַכט״, זז׳ 226־236. (Digital access link)*
דוד בערגעלסאָן, װערק, באַנד 4, פֿאַרלאַג װאָסטאָק, בערלין, 1923: „דער לעצטער ראָש־השנה״, זז׳ 23־38. (Digital access link)
יוסף אָפּאַטאָשו, מענטשן און חיות, קאָאָפּעראַטיװער פֿאָלקספֿאַרלאַג פֿון אינטערנאַציאָנאַלן אַרבעטער־אָרדן, ניו־יאָרק, 1938: „אַ פֿאַרשײַט הײַבל״, זז׳ 136־140. (Digital access link)
משה נאַדיר, אונטער דער זון, פֿאַרלאַג י.־ל. פּרץ, תּל־אָבֿיבֿ, 1966: זז׳ 122־126. (Digital access link)
Eugene Orenstein taught Modern Jewish History for 39 years in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University with particular emphasis on the Jewish labor and socialist movement in Eastern Europe and North America and the development of modern Yiddish culture. He is an author of numerous publications including bio-bibliographical studies in Der leksikon fun der nayer yidisher literatur (“Biographical Dictionary of Modern Yiddish Literature”). Eugene has been teaching Yiddish at various intensive Summer Programs including YIVO and Tel-Aviv.
*אין דער צײַט װאָס אַש האָט געשריבן „אין אַ קאַרניװאַל־נאַכט,״ האָט ער אױך געשריבן אַ צװײטע דערצײלונג אױף דער זעלביקער טעמע, נאָר פֿון אַן אַנדערן קוקװינקל. זעט „מענטשן און געטער,״ שלום אַש, געזאַמלטע שריפֿטן, צװײטער באַנד, בילדער און הומאָרעסקן, אַרױסגעגעבן פֿון שלום אַש קאָמיטע, (ניו־יאָרק), 1923, זז׳ 17־25.
A recent treatment of Asch’s “In a karnival-nakht,” is Ruthie Abeliovich and Yonatan Moss, “Sewing Mothers: Re-envisioning Jewish-Christian Relations in Sholem Asch’s ‘On a Carnival Night,’” European Journal of Jewish Studies, 18 (2024) 1-24.
On Jesus in modern Yiddish literature, see Matthew Hoffman, “From Rebel to Rabbi: Reclaiming Jesus and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture,” Stanford University Press, 2007.
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