A marriage made in heaven
Subtitle: the sexual politics of Hebrew and Yiddish
By: Naomi Seidman.
Series: Contraversions ;; 7
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
Subjects: Mendele Mokher Sefarim, 1835-1917 -- Language; Baron, Devorah, 1887-1956 -- Language; Jews -- Languages; Jewish women -- Languages; Bilingualism; Languages in contact; Yiddish language; Hebrew language; Jewish women -- Books and reading
Description: A Marriage Made in Heaven is a history of how Hebrew and Yiddish came to represent the masculine and feminine faces, respectively, of Ashkenazic Jewish culture. It is the first book-length exploration of the historical associations between Yiddish and Jewish women and Hebrew and Jewish men, tracing these associations back to the seventeenth century and the sexual segregation of reading audiences.

Documenting the eventual rise of Yiddish "women's" literature, Seidman also examines this sexual-linguistic system as it shaped the work of two bilingual authors: Sh. Y. Abramovitsh, the "grandfather" of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature, and Dvora Baron, the first woman prose writer in modern Hebrew. She then analyzes the roles Yiddish "femininity" and Hebrew "masculinity" played in the Hebrew-Yiddish language wars, the divorce that ultimately ended the Hebrew-Yiddish "marriage."
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-154) and index.