JWST 381. God and Devil in Modern Yiddish Literature.

An exploration of some of the central themes in Yiddish literature: religious faith and doubt; the nature of good and evil; and the role of fear - both awe of the divine and terror of the demonic. We will discuss Yiddish writers’ use of East European Jewish folklore, the influence of Christian culture, as well as the effects of secularization, mass emigration, and the Holocaust. Readings will include works by major Yiddish writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including I. L. Peretz, Sholem Aleichem, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.