Introductory description

N/A

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

TERM 1
Week 1— Introduction to Yiddish literature
Selected readings from Ilan Stavans, On Borrowed Words (Chapter 2), Aaron Lansky, Outwitting
History, Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilisation (Chapter 1)
Unit 1: Yiddish Warsaw and beyond
Week 2 — Y. L. Peretz, "Bontshe the Silent" (1906), "If Not Higher", "The Golem" and "The Dead
Town"
Week 3 — I. B. Singer, Satan in Goray (1933)
Week 4 — I. J. Singer, The Brothers Ashkenazi (1936)
Week 5 — Sarah Hamer-Jacklyn, "The Holy Mothers" (1946) and Lili Berger, "The Teacher Zaminski
and his Pupil Rifkele" (1993) and "Jewish Children on the Aryan Side" (1978)
Unit 2: Yiddish Beyond the Pale
Week 7 — Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Diaryman (1894)
Week 8 — Rokhl Brokhes, "The Neighbour" (1922) and "The Shop" (1922-24 and "Golde's Lament"
(1907)
Week 9 — Avrom Sutzkever selected poems from Selected Poetry and Prose
Week 10 — Kadya Molodovsky, selected poems from Paper Bridges
TERM 2
Unit 3: Soviet Yiddish
Week 1— Dovid Bergelson, "On the Eve of Battle" (1923)
Week 2 — Moishe Kulbak — The Zelmenyaners (1936)
Week 3 —Peretz Markish, selected poems and Leyb Kvitko, selected poems
Week 4 — Yenta Mash, selected stories from On the Landing
Unit 4: Yiddish in Diaspora
Week 5 — Yiddish London: Esther Kreitman, "Blitz" (1950) and "Becoming a Tramp" (1950); "The New World" (1949)
Week 7 — Yiddish New York 1: Morris Rosenfeld, Selected poems from Songs from the Ghetto (1898), Mani Leyb, "I Am" (1955), A Leyeles, New York (1926) and Jacob Glatshteyn, "To A Friend Who Wouldn't Bother to Strain his Noodleboard Because Even So It Is Hard to Go Hunting When Your Rifle is Blunt and Love Is Soft as an Old Blanket" (1937)
Week 8 — Yiddish New York 2: Yenta Serdatzky, "She Waits" (1922), Celia Dropkin, "The Acrobat", "The Train Sings a Song" and "New York at Night by the Banks of the Hudson", and Blume Lempl, "Correspondents" (1992)
Week 9 —Yiddish Canada: Rokhl Korn, "Shadows" (1957), Ida Maze, "Denah" (1970) and Chava Rosenfarb, "A Cottage in the Laurentians" (1984); Rokhl Korn, "On the Other Side of the Poem" (1962)
Week 10 — Yiddish Argentina: Mordechai Alpersohn, "The Guachito 'Happy Moses" (1943), Borekh Bendersky "An Evil Eye" (1954) and Mimi Pinzon, "The Courtyard without Windows" (1965)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• acquire knowledge of selected texts and concepts relating to the Yiddish literatures and cultures
• develop analytical and critical skills through close reading/viewing of the set texts
• demonstrate knowledge of relevant cultural and critical contexts within which to situate the set texts
• show a familiarity with key themes and debates in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Yiddish studies
• exhibit a capacity for archival skills, clear/concise expression and critical analysis
• research and construct a convincing argument, drawing on appropriate resources

Indicative reading list

Marc Caplan, How Strange the Change (2011)
Leah Garrett, Journeys Beyond the Pale (2003)
David Fishman, The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture (2005)
Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (eds) Voices from the Yiddish: essays, memoirs, diaries.
diaries (1972)
Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilisation (2005)
Mikhail Krutikov, Yiddish Fiction and the Crisis of Modernity, 1905-1914 (2001)
Esther Kuznitz, YIVO and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture (2014)
Sol Liptzin, A History of Yiddish Literature (1972)
Rebecca Margolis, Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil (2011)
Anita Norich, Writing in Tongues (2013)
David G. Roskies, A Bridge of Longing (1995)
Allison Schachter, Diasporic Modernisms (2011)
Ilan Stavans, On Borrowed Words (2001)
Barry Trachtenberg, The Revolutionary Roots of Modern Yiddish (2008)
Miriam Weinstein, Yiddish: A Nation of Words (2001)
Ruth R. Wisse, The Modern Yiddish Canon (2000)
Leon Israel Yudkin, Jewish Writing and Identity in the Twentieth-Century (1982)

Subject specific skills

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the set texts in their cultural, political, and literary contexts
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the political, social, subjective, and historical implications of Eastern European and diasporic Yiddish literature
Develop an understanding of Yiddish as a transnational literature and culture

Transferable skills

Use historical and culturally-based approaches to literature as a social text.
Display critical reading and writing abilities.