YIDDISH 112 – Yiddish Literature and Culture in America

YIDDISH 112 – Yiddish Literature and Culture in America

Semester: Fall
Offered: 2025
Instructor: Justin Cammy
Meeting Time: W 12:45pm – 2:45pm

Explores the diversity of Yiddish literary culture in the Americas, from immigrant narratives to avant-garde experimentation, from the ways Yiddish translated and interpreted America to a consideration of the Yiddish trace in more recent texts. Explores such themes as encounters with new American landscapes; race and racialization; the creative deployment of folk-types such as the shlemiel and otherworldly dybbuks; literary modernism and proletarian writing; humor and ethnic performance; and construction of imagined Yiddishlands. Ideal for students looking to enhance their understanding of American literature through a multilingual lens. Includes a curated visit to the Yiddish Book Center in Western Massachusetts. Students interested in English and American literature, Comparative Literature, and American history are especially encouraged, though no prior knowledge is expected. All readings in translation.

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.