MODERN YIDDISH LITERATURE: THE WORLDS OF EAST EUROPEAN JEWS
Prof. Sasha Senderovich -- please email with any questions: senderov@uw.edu
https://sashasenderovich.weebly.com/
This course examines modern Yiddish literature from its origins in the Russian Empire's western borderlands (today's Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania) to its responses to ruptures of the twentieth century: world wars, revolutions, and the Holocaust. Written in the diasporic and stateless language of East European Jews, Yiddish literature deals with migration (including to the United States, Argentina, Israel/Palestine, among other places), ethnic violence, challenges to religious customs, gender norms, sexualities, challenges of modernity, and the experience of mass violence and genocide.
All readings are in English translation; no knowledge of Yiddish is required.
The updated syllabus for the course is here: Slavic 340--Yiddish Lit & Culture--Autumn 2025 syllabus--updated.pdf
This course has several listings: SLAVIC 340, JEW ST 340, GLITS 313 A -- please enroll in any section that suits your needs, it's all the same course.
A frame from the film The Dybbuk (dir. by Michał Waszyński, Poland, 1937) based on the Yiddish play of the same name by S. An-sky (1920). The protagonist Leah dancing at her wedding with a wedding guest dressed up as Death. (Yes, we will study this in class!)
SCHEDULE OF READING ASSIGNMENTS -- all readings can be found in the course reader available for purchase at the start of the quarter. Students don't need to purchase any books.
Th 9/25 Introduction: Writing in a Minority Language
Sholem Aleichem, “On Account of a Hat” (translated by Isaac Rosenfeld) -- read and discuss in first class
Tu 9/30 Yiddish Words, Translated Worlds
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Gimpel the Fool” (trans. Saul Bellow)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Cafeteria” (trans. Dorothea Straus with the author)
* Note: today’s class meets together with the course on Literature and the Nobel Prize in MLR 301 (2:30–4:20 pm, same time as our regular class)
Th 10/2 No class: Yom Kippur
Tu 10/7 Authority: Earthly, Heavenly, Other
- Sholem Aleichem, “The Pot” (trans. Sacvan Bercovitch)
- Y. L. Peretz, “Bontshe Shvayg” (trans. Hillel Halkin)
- Yenta Mash, “Resting Place” (trans. Ellen Cassedy)
WORLDS OF THE SHTETL
Th 10/9 Sh. Y. Abramovitsh, The Brief Adventures of Benjamin the Third (trans. Hillel Halkin), pp. 301-344
Tu 10/14 Sh. Y. Abramovitsh, The Brief Adventures of Benjamin the Third (trans. Hillel Halkin), pp. 344-391
Th 10/16 David Bergeson, “In a Backwoods Town” (trans. Bernard Guilbert Guerney)
- Fradl Shtok, “The First Train” (trans. Allison Schachter and Jordan Finkin)
Tu 10/21 Shira Gorshman, “From House to House” (trans. Harriet Murav and Sasha Senderovich)
- Blume Lempel, “Correspondents” (trans. Irena Klepfisz)
GENERATIONAL WORLDS
Th 10/23 Y. L. Peretz, “Four Generations, Four Wills”
- Sholem Aleichem, “Hodl” (trans. Hillel Halkin)
Tu 10/28 Der Nister, “Behind a Fence” (trans. Seymour Levitan)
- Fradl Shtok, “The Daredevil” (trans. Allison Schachter and Jordan Finkin)
Th 10/30 Yenta Mash, “Bread” (trans. Ellen Cassedy)
- Rivka Rubin, “The Wall” (trans. Harriet Murav and Sasha Senderovich)
- Rokhl Korn, “The Road of No Return” (trans. Miriam Waddington)
WORLDS OF DESIRE
Tu 11/4 The Dybbuk (directed by Michał Waszyński, 1937)
Th 11/6 No class: instructor at a conference (American Literary Translators Association)
Tu 11/11 No class: Veterans Day
Th 11/13 Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Taibele and Her Demon” (trans. Mirra Ginsburg)
- Fradl Shtok, “The Veil” (trans. Allison Schachter and Jordan Finkin)
- Meir Kucinski, “The Mulata” (trans. Alan Astro)
Tu 11/18 Yente Serdatsky, “Unchanged” (trans. Frieda Forman and Ethel Raicus)
- Blume Lempel, “The Debt” (trans. Ellen Cassedy and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub)
WORLDS AFTER DISASTER
Th 11/20 No class: instructor at a conference (Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)
Tu 11/25 Lamed Shapiro, “White Challah” (trans. Norbert Guterman)
- Joseph Opatoshu, “A Lynching” (trans. Jessica Kirzane)
Th 11/27 No class: Thanksgiving
Tu 12/2 David Bergeson, “Among Refugees” (trans. Joachim Neugroschel)
- Avrom Karpinovitch, “Don’t Forget” (trans. Shachar Pinsker)
Th 12/4 Chava Rosenfarb, “Edgia’s Revenge” (trans. Goldie Morgenthaler)