The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: A Haunted Reader

by Joachim Neugroschel

Overview

he most famous play in the Yiddish repertoire, S. Ansky's The Dybbuk has been made into two films and three operas and has been staged all over the world. As an extraordinary product of the Yiddish imagination, however, its literary and religious roots have never been thoroughly explored.

With a new translation of Ansky's play that conveys its brilliant supernatural poetry, this anthology comprises thirty highly diverse literary masterpieces dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. Beginning with the first Yiddish tale about a possession (1602), these works influenced Ansky or formed a cultural and spiritual network that shows us how the era and tradition precipitated the drama. The result is a literary mosaic that shows a vast array of styles, from the earthy simplicity of homespun folk tales to the delicacy and elegance of polished literary expression.

Joachim Neugroschel brings together a wide variety of stories, verse narratives, and even modern melodrama--many never before translated into English.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815628729
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2000
Series:	Judaic Traditions in Literature, Music, and Art
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	436
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Joachim Neugroschel has translated some 180 books from French, German, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish, including works by Franz Kafka, Sholem Aleichem, Thomas Mann, Albert Schweitzer, and Hermann Hesse. He has won three PEN translation prizes as well as the translation prize of the French-American Foundation. In 1996, the French government made him a chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.

Editorial Reviews

In Jewish folklore, a is a dead soul that can possess the living. Along with a new translation of Ansky's (1914- 19), the most famous play in the Yiddish repertoire (made into several films and operas), award-winning New York translator Neugroschel introduces 30 diverse and some never before translated into English similarly-themed folk tales, verse narratives, and melodrama from the 17th to 20th century. Includes tales by Sholem Aleichem and Rabbi Nakhman of Braslev. Lacks an index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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