The hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer / edited by Seth L. Wolitz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wolitz, Seth L.

Series:

Literary modernism series

The literary modernism series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 1904-1991--Criticism and interpretation.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis.

Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 1904-1991.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 240 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2001.

Summary:

Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer stands virtually alone among prominent writers for being more widely read and known through translations of his work than through the original texts. In fact, Singer himself encouraged this, calling the English translations of his Yiddish texts "second originals." Yet readers and critics of the original Yiddish works 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 from five continents seeks to resurrect, recover, and restore the authentic voice and vision of the writer known to his Yiddish readers as Yitskhok Bashevis.

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. All of these materials, together with historical maps and photographs, reveal I. B. Singer as a Yiddish writer grounded in his Jewish cultural tradition and fully integrated inside Yiddish culture within the Eastern European Slavic literary milieu to which his work contributed significantly. Thus, this volume recuperates the real Isaac Bashevis and the lost world which he both belonged to and outlived, even as he recreated himself in the New World in the persona of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Contents:

I. The Yiddish Language and the Yiddish Cultural Experience in Bashevis's Writings

1 A Canticle for Isaac: A Kaddish for Bashevis / Irving Saposnik 3

2 Bashevis/Singer and the Jewish Pope / Joseph Sherman 13

3 History, Messianism, and Apocalyse in Bashevis's Work / Avrom Noversztern 28

4 Sociolinguistic Views of Isaac Bashevis Singer / Mark L. Louden 62

II. Thematic Approaches to the Study of Bashevis's Fiction

5 Bilom in Bashevis's Der knekht (The Slave): A khaye hot oykh a neshome (An animal also has a soul) / Leonard Prager 79

6 Art and Religion in Der bal-tshuve (The Penitent) / Alan Astro 93

7 "Death Is the Only Messiah": Three Supernatural Stories by Yitskhok Bashevis / Jan Schwarz 107

III. Bashevis's Interface with Other Times and Cultures

8 Bashevis's Interactions with the Mayse-bukh (Book of Tales) / Astrid Starck-Adler 119

9 The Role of Polish Language and Literature in Bashevis's Fiction / Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska 134

IV. Interpretations of Bashevis's Autobiographical Writings

10 Revealing Bashevis's Earliest Autobiographical Novel, Varshe 1914-1918 (Warsaw 1914-1918) / Nathan Cohen 151

11 Folk and Folklore in the Work of Bashevis / Itzik Gottesman 162

12 Bashevis at Forverts / Janet Hadda 173

V. Bashevis's Untranslated "Gangster" Novel: Yarme Un Keyle

13 A Background Note on the Translation of Yarme un keyle / Joseph Sherman 185

14 Yarme and Keyle: Chapter 2 / Isaac Bashevis Singer, Translated by Joseph Sherman 192

Appendix Bashevis Singer as a Regionalist of Lublin Province: A Note / Seth L. Wolitz, Joseph Sherman 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

029279147X

OCLC:

46729229