GERMAN 170
A Germanic language with elements from Hebrew and Aramaic, several Slavic languages, and
even Latin, Yiddish was the primary home language of the majority of Europe’s Jews for many
centuries. It was and is a language without a country which united Jews from disparate parts of
Europe and other places in the world, but which at the same time served as a flashpoint of
tensions both within communities of speakers as well as between Jews and non-Jews. In this
course, we will learn about the history of the language from its origins in medieval German
lands to the present day. Most of the course will focus on its cultural flourishing throughout
Eastern Europe from the late eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, and we’ll end by
examining its status today as a minority language in need of curation and dependent on efforts
at revitalization. We will also explore its rich culture through literature, film, theatre plays, and
other cultural products. This course is thus part historical-linguistic and sociolinguistic study,
part literature and film seminar, and part cultural history. In each segment we will consider
critical issues such as the relationship between language and identity, language and religion,
and the ways that the language both indexed as well as manifested social-class and gender
divisions within the Yiddish-speaking world, and the ways various cultural products and
practices served to expose, engage with, or mitigate tensions between Jews and non-Jews.
(same as 24060 Euro St 103, Lec A) |
