Choosing Yiddish

Download or read book Choosing Yiddish written by Lara Rabinovitch and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yiddish Hip Hop, a nineteenth-century “Hasidic Slasher,” obscure Yiddish writers, and immigrant Jewish newspapers in Buenos Aires, Paris, and New York are just a few of the topics featured in Choosing Yiddish: New Frontiers of Language and Culture. Editors Lara Rabinovitch, Shiri Goren, and Hannah S. Pressman have gathered a diverse and richly layered collection of essays that demonstrates the currency of Yiddish scholarship in academia today. Organized into six thematic rubrics, Choosing Yiddish demonstrates that Yiddish, always a border-crossing language, continues to push boundaries with vigorous disciplinary exchange. “Writing on the Edge” focuses on the realm of belles lettres; “Yiddish and the City” spans the urban centers of Paris, Buenos Aires, New York City, and Montreal; “Yiddish Goes Pop” explores the mediating role of Yiddish between artistic vision and popular culture; “Yiddish Comes to America” focuses on the history and growth of Yiddish in the United States; “Yiddish Encounters Hebrew” showcases interactions between Yiddish and Hebrew in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and “Hear and Now” explores the aural dimension of Yiddish in contemporary settings. Along the way, contributors consider famed and lesser-known Yiddish writers, films, and Yiddish hip-hop, as well as historical studies on the Yiddish press, Yiddish film melodrama, Hasidic folkways, and Yiddish culture in Israel. Venerable scholars introduce each rubric, creating additional dialogue between newer and more established voices in the field. The international contributors prove that the language—far from dying—is fostering exciting new directions of academic and popular discourse, rooted in the field’s historic focus on interdisciplinary research. Students and teachers of Yiddish studies will enjoy this innovative collection. Contributors: Ela Bauer, Sarah Bunin Benor, Jeremy Dauber, Hasia Diner, Gennady Estraikh, Jordan Finkin, Shiri Goren, Dara Horn, Adriana X. Jacobs, Ari Y. Kelman, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Rebecca Kobrin, Josh Lambert, Barbara Mann, Rebecca Margolis, Tony Michels, Anita Norich, Shachar Pinsker, Edward Portnoy, Hannah S. Pressman, Lara Rabinovitch, Jeffrey Shandler, Anna Shternshis, Shayn Smulyan, Zehavit Stern, Ester-Basya (Asya) Vaisman, Kalman Weiser, Jennifer Young, Gerben Zaagsma Cover illustration and design by Joseph Remnant Published by Wayne State University Press