Yiddish Life: On Page, On Stage, On Screen (3 cr)
Dov-Ber Kerler
GER-E 351 Topics in Yiddish Literature (13943) / CMLT-C 377 (13973) / GER-Y 505 (13944)
2nd 8 week course
MW 4:00-6:15 (SY 0008)
CASE A&H, CASE GCC
Meets with GER-Y 505
This course will be devoted to a number of major works of early modern Yiddish fiction, drama and film some of them being prime achievements of modern Yiddish creativity dealing with the rapid modernization, identity issues and cultural as well as social aspiration of East European Jews in Europe and in America.
These works will be closely read and discussed in class. Each one of the three larger works was also adapted or transformed into a film which will be viewed and critically compared with the literary work that inspired it.
Apart from the general introduction to the historical and socio-cultural background of Yiddish literature and culture this course will also deal with issues of (1) literary structure and representation, (2) fantasy, realism and fiction, (3) the notion of a “national” literature and its possible role in the so-called “world literature,” (4) various specific concerns of a cinematic adaptation of a literary work, (5) the role of drama, theater (and perhaps also cinema) in the cultural public make-up of a stateless national group both in Europe and North America
