Yiddish Poetry and the Tuberculosis Sanatorium : 1900-1970 / Ernest B. Gilman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilman, Ernest B., 1946- author.

Series:

Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art.

Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sanatoriums in literature.

Patients' writings--History and criticism.

Patients' writings.

Tuberculosis and literature.

Yiddish poetry--History and criticism.

Yiddish poetry.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Part literary history and part medical sociology, Gilman's book chronicles the careers of three major immigrant Yiddish poets of the twentieth century-Solomon Bloomgarten (Yehoash), Sholem Shtern, and H. Leivick-all of whom lived through, and wrote movingly of, their experience as patients in a tuberculosis sanatorium. Gilman addresses both the formative influence of the sanatorium on the writers' work and the culture of an institution in which, before the days of antibiotics, writing was encouraged as a form of therapy. He argues that each writer produced a significant body of work during his recovery, itself an experience that profoundly influenced the course of his subsequent literary career. Seeking to recover the "imaginary" of the sanatorium as a scene of writing by doctors and patients, Gilman explores the historical connection between tuberculosis treatment and the written word. Through a close analysis of Yiddish poems, and translations of these writers, Gilman sheds light on how essential writing and literature were to the sanatorium experience. All three poets wrote under the shadow of death. Their works are distinctive, but their most urgent concerns are shared: strangers in a strange land, suffering, displacement, acculturation, and, inevitably, what it means to be a Jew.

Contents:

The poetics of lunger lit

Yehoash and the Yiddish Hiawatha

Leivick and the 'Ballad of Denver Sanatorium'

Shtern and the white house.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780815653066

0815653069

OCLC:

899212306