Yiddish for Spies, or the Secret History of Jewish Literature, Lemberg 1814

This article has two goals: first, it aims to solve a mystery in Yiddish studies by identifying the previously unknown author of one of the earliest Eastern European modern literary texts in Yiddish, and reconstructing the historical context in which he wrote the text. Second, it will show how this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Naharaim
Main Author: Dynes, Ofer (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter 2016
In: Naharaim
Further subjects:B Habsburg Empire Galicia Haskalah Napoleonic Wars Yiddish Literature Johann Eduard Sack Joseph Perl
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:This article has two goals: first, it aims to solve a mystery in Yiddish studies by identifying the previously unknown author of one of the earliest Eastern European modern literary texts in Yiddish, and reconstructing the historical context in which he wrote the text. Second, it will show how this archival-biographical discovery sheds new light on the history of Eastern European Jews during the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) as well as on the rise of Haskalah literature. Finally, as the title of this article suggests, I will argue that there was a direct link between narration and denunciation, between the Austrian imperial interest in collecting insider information about the Jews and the turn to writing literature in Jewish languages.
ISSN:1862-9156
Contains:In: Naharaim
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/naha-2016-0015