The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer

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 writingsA 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.

Author: Seth L. Wolitz
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 01/01/2002
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9780292728684

About the Author
Wolitz, Seth L.: - Seth L. Wolitz holds the L. D., Marie, and Edwin Gale Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also Professor of French, Slavic, and Comparative Literature.