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Columbia Dissertations and Theses > Doctoral Dissertations
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| Author(s): | Caplan, Beatrice |
| Title: | Orthodox Yiddish literature in interwar Poland |
| Physical Description: | v, 310 leaves, bound. |
| Issue Date: | 2005 |
| Description: | Department: Germanic Languages. UMI cat no. 3159727 Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 2005. |
| Bookmark as: | http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:7430 |
| Full Text (ProQuest): | /ac/proxit.jsp?url=http://gateway.proquest.com/ope... |
| Abstract: | In Poland between the two world wars Yiddish literary works in modern forms appeared in the periodicals of the major Orthodox political party Agudes Yisroel. This study situates this Orthodox literature---which has been all but overlooked in Yiddish literary history---in its historical, social and literary contexts, and analyses a representative sample of its works. The study begins by tracing developments in the nineteenth century that prepared the ground for Orthodox writing in modern literary forms. Only in the interwar period, however, did a group of writers crystallize who consciously strove to create what they themselves termed "Orthodox literature." Besides the founding of the Aguda in 1916 and with it an Orthodox Yiddish press, a major factor in the emergence of Orthodox Yiddish literature at this time was Jewish youth culture in interwar Poland that placed much importance on reading and writing. Indeed, articles published in Aguda youth journals make it clear that Orthodox literature was regarded primarily as a tool with which to combat secular Yiddish literature that was blamed for the defection of large numbers of young people from the traditional way of life. The didactic orientation of Orthodox literature is borne out by analysis of a selection of Orthodox prose and poetry, in which ideological concerns generally trump aesthetic value. On subjects ranging from the shtetl to the lyric self, Orthodox writers were constantly limited by what was considered suitable in the Orthodox context; some topics, such as male-female relationships and criticism of parents or teachers, were effectively taboo. Exceptional is the writer V. Laykhter who achieved remarkable aesthetic sophistication within these limitations. In addition to opening up a little known chapter in Yiddish literary history, this study contributes to current scholarship on the transformation of traditional Jewish life in the modern period. Like the political party and the press, Orthodox Yiddish literature exemplifies the way in which the Orthodox establishment adopted and adapted modern forms in the name of preserving tradition---and thereby, often unconsciously, initiated a process of change in what "tradition" is understood to be. |
| Collection(s): | Doctoral Dissertations |
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