It could lead to dancing : mixed-sex dancing and Jewish modernity / Sonia Gollance.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gollance, Sonia.

Series:

Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance in literature.

German fiction--History and criticism.

German fiction.

Yiddish fiction--History and criticism.

Yiddish fiction.

Jewish dance in literature.

Jews in literature.

Sex role in literature.

Jews--Social life and customs.

Jews.

Jews--Cultural assimilation--History.

Physical Description:

xvi, 278 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First paperback printing.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2023.

Summary:

"Dances and balls appear throughout world literature as venues for young people to meet, flirt, and form relationships, as any reader of Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, or Romeo and Juliet can attest. The popularity of social dance transcends class, gender, ethnic, and national boundaries. In the context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jewish culture, dance offers crucial insights into debates about emancipation and acculturation. While traditional Jewish law prohibits men and women from dancing together, Jewish mixed-sex dancing was understood as the very sign of modernity--and the ultimate boundary transgression. Writers of modern Jewish literature deployed dance scenes as a charged and complex arena for understanding the limits of acculturation, the dangers of ethnic mixing, and the implications of shifting gender norms and marriage patterns, while simultaneously entertaining their readers. In this pioneering study, Sonia Gollance examines the specific literary qualities of dance scenes, while also paying close attention to the broader social implications of Jewish engagement with dance. Combining cultural history with literary analysis and drawing connections to contemporary representations of Jewish social dance, Gollance illustrates how mixed-sex dancing functions as a flexible metaphor for the concerns of Jewish communities in the face of cultural transitions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the space of the dance floor

The choreography of acculturation

How Jews learned to dance

The tavern : Jewish participation in rural leisure culture

The ballroom : questions of admission and exclusion

The wedding : celebratory ritual and social enforcement

The dance hall : commercial leisure culture and American sexual mores

Epilogue : "What comes from men and women dancing"

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-262) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Schneidman Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

150363812X

9781503638129

OCLC:

1394113919