This course will examine New York as a Real and Symbolic 'Locus' in Yiddish American Literature. It will address the main aspects of the Jewish New York experience as reflected in the writings of Yiddish poets and writers of prose fiction, and to trace the various levels of significance the "place" assumed in their works.
The course will have four foci: a) the New York ambience through the eyes of the immigrants (possible texts for discussion: a selection from Morris Rozenfeld's "Sweat-Shop" poetry; a selection from Moyshe Leyb Halpern's "In New York" [both Hebrew and Yiddish translations are available), and the Yoysef Opatoshu's first New York novella: "In New-Yorker Ghetto." If time allows, we will also discuss David Ignatov's short novel :"In Kessl Grub," a unique attempt to refract the Immigrants' experience through the prism of Symbolist prose. b) problems of acculturation. The main text would be Sholem Asch's "East River," in many ways the author's best creation as well as the most intriguing New York "epic", where a social history of the Jewish garment industry in New york, a rivetting family saga and an exploration of the themes of faith, agnosticism, Jewish-Christian interactions and the emergence of a particular kind of an American-New Yorkish Jewish sainthood (as distinguised from the European-Hasidic brand) are dexterously intertwined.c) New York of the Inzikhistn: a small anthology of New York poems by A.G.Leyeles, Y. Glatshteyn, J.L.Teller and B. Alkvit would be discussed. Perhaps also a chapter or two from Glatshteyn's Yash novels. D) "Hard Boiled" Jewish New York of the Great Depression. Main texts: B. Demblin's "West Side" and Berish Vaynshteyn "Brukhvarg."