Jewish Literature Beyond Borders

In 1918, the literary critic Baal Makhshoves wrote that Yiddish and Hebrew represented “two languages – one literature.” During his time, the bilingual roots of Hebrew and Yiddish burgeoned into a rich literary culture that transcended territorial boundaries. But these languages soon parted ways: Hebrew became the language of the Jewish State, while Yiddish remained the language of the Diaspora. In today’s increasingly mobile, multicultural and multilingual world, it is clear that culture can no longer be defined solely in terms of geopolitical location, language or ethnicity. The transnational turn raises new questions and possibilities for the study of Jewish literature. Is it time to reclaim and redefine Jewish multilingualism? How might we remap Jewish literary space to surpass conventional linguistic and national borders? Can this expanded geography be compared with other diasporic literary cultures? What does the study of Jewish literature beyond borders reveal about our own globalized world?

Click here to view the symposium schedule. Click here to view the poster.

Presented by the Centre for Jewish Studies, with the support of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, the Posen Foundation, and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Organized by Dr. Rachel Seelig, Ray D. Wolfe Postdoctoral Fellow.