In harness
Subtitle: Yiddish writers' romance with communism
By: Gennady Estraikh.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Syracuse, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
Subjects: Yiddish literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Yiddish literature -- Soviet Union -- History and criticism.; Authors, Yiddish -- Soviet Union.; Jewish communists -- Soviet Union.; Jews -- Soviet Union -- Intellectual life.; Communism in literature.
Description: "Here is a detailed glimpse into the lives and times of Yiddish writers enthralled with Communism at the turn of the century through the mid-1930s. Centering mainly on the Soviet Jewish literati but with an eye to their American counterparts, the book follows their paths from avant-garde beginnings in Kiev after the 1905 revolution to their peak in the mid-1930s. Notables such as David Bergelson - who helmed the short-lived Yiddish periodical called In Harness - and Der Nister and David Hofshtein come to life as do Leyb Kvitko, Peretz Markish, Itsik Fefer, Moshe Litvakov, Yekhezkel Dobrushin, and Nokhum Oislender." "Gennady Estraikh assesses significant pre-Holocaust twentieth-century Communist Jewish writers in teh Soviet Union and America. He charts the course of their artistic and political flowering and decline and considers the effects of geography - provincial vs. urban - and party politics upon literary development and aesthetics." "No other book concentrates on this aspect of the Jewish intellectual scene nor has any book unveiled the scale and intensity of Yiddish Communist literary life in the 1920s and 1930s or the contributions its writers made to Jewish culture."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Kiev; title: Moscow; title: Offshore Soviet literature; title: The new growth; title: Toward Soviet realism.