The Yiddish Presence in European Literature: Inspiration and Interaction. Selected Papers arising from the Fourth and Fifth International Mendel Friedman Conference (Legenda Studies in Yiddish)

Early in the twentieth century, Yiddish, previously stigmatized as a corrupt jargon, came to be recognized as a language in its own right, and one moreover that was already the vehicle for a rich literature. Many writers in other European languages steadily became aware of the status and richness of the Yiddish language, sometimes by encountering Yiddish-speaking communities in Eastern Europe, and they responded to Yiddish language and culture in their own works, while Yiddish writers adopted, and sometimes anticipated, modern trends in other European literatures known to them. The collection of papers in this volume examines some of these fruitful interactions between Yiddish and the European literary tradition, ranging from the early nineteenth century to the present, from France to Lithuania, and from classic modernist writers such as Kafka to Imre Kertesz (Nobel Prize for Literature, 2002). With the contributions: Gilles Rozier — ‘When Purim-shpiler meets Columbine’: Characters of Commedia dell’arte and Purimshpil in the Works of Moyshe Broderzon David Bellos — In the Worst Possible Taste: Romain Gary’s Dance of Genghis Cohn Florian Krobb — ‘Muthwillige Faschingstracht’: The Presence of Yiddish in Nineteenth-Century German Literature Ritchie Robertson — Kafka’s Encounter with the Yiddish Theatre David Groiser — Translating Yiddish: Martin Buber and David Pinski Mikhail Krutikov — Yiddish Author as Cultural Mediator: Meir Wiener’s Unpublished Novel David Midgley — The Romance of the East: Encounters of German-Jewish Writers with Yiddish-Speaking Communities, 1916-27 Pol O Dochartaigh — Intimacy and Alienation: Yiddish in the Works of Jurek Becker Peter Sherwood — ‘Living through Something’: Notes on the Work of Imre Kertesz Joseph Sherman — Bergelson and Chekhov: Convergences and Departures Gennady Estraikh — Shmuel Gordon: A Yiddish Writer in ‘the Ocean of Russian Literature’