The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer / / ed. by Seth L. Wolitz.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika,; Astro, Alan,; Cohen, Nathan,; Gottesman, Itzik,; Hadda, Janet,; Louden, Mark L.,; Noversztern, Avrom,; Prager, Leonard,; Saposnik, Irving,; Sherman, Joseph,; Singer, Isaac Bashevis,; Starck-Adler, Astrid,; Wolitz, Seth L.,
• HerausgeberIn: Wolitz, Seth L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Literary Modernism
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.)

Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer stands virtually alone among prominent writers for being more widely known through translations of his work than through the original texts. Yet readers and critics of the Yiddish originals have long pointed out that the English versions are generally shortened, often shorn of much description and religious matter, and their perspectives and denouements are significantly altered. In short, they turn the Yiddish author into a Jewish-American English writer, detached from of his Eastern European Jewish literary and cultural roots. By contrast, this collection of essays by leading Yiddish scholars seeks to recover the authentic voice and vision of the writer known to his Yiddish readers as Yitskhok Bashevis. The essays are grouped around four themes: The Yiddish language and the Yiddish cultural experience in Bashevis's writings Thematic approaches to the study of Bashevis's literature Bashevis's interface with other times and cultures Interpretations of Bashevis's autobiographical writings A special feature of this volume is the inclusion of Joseph Sherman's new, faithful translation of a chapter from Bashevis's Yiddish "underworld" novel Yarme and Keyle.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I. THE YIDDISH LANGUAGE AND THE YIDDISH CULTURAL EXPERIENCE IN BASHEVIS’S WRITINGS -- 1 A Canticle for Isaac: A Kaddish for Bashevis -- 2 Bashevis/Singer and the Jewish Pope -- 3 History, Messianism, and Apocalypse in Bashevis’s Work -- 4 Sociolinguistic Views of Isaac Bashevis Singer -- II. THEMATIC APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF BASHEVIS’S FICTION -- 5 Bilom in Bashevis’s Der knekht (The Slave) -- 6 Art and Religion in Der bal-tshuve (The Penitent) -- 7 ‘‘Death Is the Only Messiah’’ -- III. BASHEVIS’S INTERFACE WITH OTHER TIMES AND CULTURES -- 8 Bashevis’s Interactions with the Mayse-bukh (Book of Tales) -- 9 The Role of Polish Language and Literature in Bashevis’s Fiction -- IV. INTERPRETATIONS OF BASHEVIS’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS -- 10 Revealing Bashevis’s Earliest Autobiographical Novel, Varshe 1914–1918 (Warsaw 1914–1918) -- 11 Folk and Folklore in the Work of Bashevis -- 12 Bashevis at Forverts -- V. BASHEVIS’S UNTRANSLATED ‘‘GANGSTER’’ NOVEL: YARME UN KEYLE -- 13 A Background Note on the Translation of Yarme un keyle -- 14 Yarme and Keyle: Chapter 2 -- Appendix. Bashevis Singer as a Regionalist of Lublin Province: A Note -- Glossary -- Notes on Contributors -- Index