Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 3.011 May 21, 1993 1) The walls (Jascha Kessler) 2) Literature, idioms (Khaim Bochner) 3) Introduction ( Lisa A. Jenschke) 4) Yiddish literature (Michael Abramson) 5) Yiddish literature (Ted Steinberg) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 00:26:08 1993 from: kessler subject: re the walls to: mendele@starbase.trincoll.edu Dear Mendele & worldwide friends: the various comments on knocking the head against the wall, to alleviate boredom on a sleety Bronx winter day in the 1930s ( in my case), set me to wondering what the figure was about. If one has nothing (better) to do, one is advised to knock one's head against the wall. Is the root of this advice some sardonic skeptical (worldly) advice that those who are unemployed should daven? It seems a likely kind of sarcasm to me; but then my family, and many others no doubt, were a steelyhearted skeptical lot. I know how hard it is to get to the root of any adage; but one may speculate. In any case, I never understood what my mother meant by it; I know, however, that when I took her exasperate admonition to heart and began smashing my head against the wall, and denting the plaster and paint, she was appalled at my literal nasty folly. Darling, darling! the poor bloody head was cradled...and everything was laughter, later, at some Sunday retelling. The other head knocking I can reca ll occurs in a marvellous Babel story, or is it the father's fists against the john's door? where the lad is locked in,in fear, because he has never gone to the violin lessons, like Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein and the rest of those youthful Odessa geniuses, but gone instead (like this Jascha) to the docks to hear the yarns of an old sailor....It has a marvellous ending, if some of us recall, with the old grandfather passing by as the boy goes down to drown himself for the third time in the rainbarrel's water...Where are you going, Zaydeh? asks Babel, and the old man says with blistering contempt, I am going to take some castor oil. Why, Zaydeh? So as to have something to put on your grave! That is the sort of family I can recall surrounding my childhood. Anyway, why is that command to knock one's head against the wall as a remedy for boredom given? It puzzles me still. Kessler here, still. 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 10:25:52 1993 From: bochner@das.harvard.edu Subject: literature, idioms 1) I'm with Bob Werman: although I'm a linguist, I'd love to hear more about literature. Besides not being too sophisticated on literary matters, I'm still in the slow process of becoming well-read in Yiddish. I'm just reaching the end of the first volume of Sholem Aleykhem's "Funem Yarid", and finding it only moderately interesting. Anyone care to explain to me what I'm missing? 2) Please do compile a list of idioms -- I have Bernshteyn & Stutshkov, but they rarely explain the idioms, since they expect you to understand them already :-( A list could be a big help to advanced learners! Khaim 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 11:46:40 1993 From: Subject: introductions all around Hello to the Mendele community, My name is Lisa (Leah) Jenschke, and I'm a graduate student in Yiddish and German at Ohio State University. I only recently fell in love with Yiddish and I have to heartily thank Neil Jacobs here for his (unpaid) tutorials and both him and David Miller for taking me on as a graduate student. I grew up in the flat, hot city of Dallas, did my undergraduate work at UPenn in Philly and now I'm here in central Ohio, wondering when I will ever get all my reading done. I wanted to respond to the non-literature types who feel they have nothing to add to a discussion of Yiddish literature. I think many an author would be dismayed to think that only literature types could respond to and discuss his/her work. As an author, I would feel that I had failed to connect with the reader, to suspend his or her disbelief, to strike a responsive chord. I guess I believe that most people read because they are looking for part of themselves in the text. They want to find out more about themselves. So, unless all linguists are inhuman, they are probably looking too. I'll get off of my soapbox now. Hopefully, this struck a chord somewhere. Please feel free to send me e-mail at ljenschk@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Hope to hear from you, Leah 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 00:41:33 1993 From: MAC191H@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au Subject: Yiddish literature Tayere Mendele, Ich hob gehert as ihr hot a sach yiddisher bicher und andere zachen. Seit azoy gut and derzehlt mir vos kan men machen oyfen computer. Mit grissen fun Australia, Michael Abramson. 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri May 21 14:18:00 1993 From: "Ted L. Steinberg" Subject: Yiddish literature I know that many Mendelniks are linguists and that others teach in departments where Yiddish is regularly taught. I wonder how many others have an opportunity to include Yiddish works in appropriate courses. For example, SUNY Fredonia is not a hotbed of Yiddish studies, but I have managed to teach any number of Yiddish works over the years in courses on satire or on religion in literature. Now that multiculturalism has become such a force (and I'm all in favor of it), I can include Yiddish works in even more of our core major courses that require a multicultural focus. What books might people be teaching. Also, on a related topic, I'm teaching a course in the fall on Black and Jewish literature, which will devote considerable attention to our Yiddish heritage, both for its intrinsic value and for its influence on American literature. I would appreciate advice on any aspect of this course from anyone who feels moved to offer some. Ted Steinberg ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 3.011 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu If your node is Bitnet-only and is not connected to the Internet, please send your message to: mendele@yalevm If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@dot.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.