Jeffrey Shandler
Adventures in Yiddishland
Postvernacular Language and Culture
An S. Mark Taper Foundation Book in Jewish Studies
$50.00, £34.95 hardcover
9780520244160
Available Now
$24.95, £16.95 paperback
9780520258112
Available Now
278 pages, 6 x 9 inches, 43 b/w photographs
December 2005, Available worldwide
Also in: Language Texts; Linguistic Theory
December 2005, Available worldwide
Also in: Language Texts; Linguistic Theory
Adventures in Yiddishland examines the transformation of Yiddish in the six decades since the Holocaust, tracing its shift from the language of daily life for millions of Jews to what the author terms a postvernacular language of diverse and expanding symbolic value. With a thorough command of modern Yiddish culture as well as its centuries-old history, Jeffrey Shandler investigates the remarkable diversity of contemporary encounters with the language. His study traverses the broad spectrum of people who engage with Yiddish—from Hasidim to avant-garde performers, Jews as well as non-Jews, fluent speakers as well as those who know little or no Yiddish—in communities across the Americas, in Europe, Israel, and other outposts of "Yiddishland."
"Opens a new genre within the fields of Yiddish and pop culture. . . .He has offered an elegant framework for integrating contemporary trends in Yiddish culture into a system for better understanding culture, community, and scholarship today."—Amanda Glaser, Sh'ma: a Journal of Jewish Responsibility
"A definitive, even ground-breaking, portrait . . . . Brims with larger insights about the evolution of Jewish culture and identity in the 20th century."—The Jerusalem Report
"Shandler does an enormous service for anyone who studies or cares about Yiddish."—Jewish Book World
"A definitive, even ground-breaking, portrait . . . . Brims with larger insights about the evolution of Jewish culture and identity in the 20th century."—The Jerusalem Report
"Shandler does an enormous service for anyone who studies or cares about Yiddish."—Jewish Book World
"Adventures in Yiddishland presents a familiar phenomenon in American-Jewish culture that has rarely been seen before. Shandler has a thorough command not only of contemporary Yiddish, but indeed in all its historical stages."—Naomi Seidman, author of A Marriage Made in Heaven: The Sexual Politics of Hebrew and Yiddish
"A brilliant and original take on Yiddish in the post-World War II period. The book is beautifully conceived, thoroughly researched, logically structured, and clearly written. The writing is lively and the argument is clear and richly documented. While the focus is on post-World War II America, the book reaches back in time to virtually the entire history of Yiddish, but especially Yiddish in the modern period."—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage
"A brilliant and original take on Yiddish in the post-World War II period. The book is beautifully conceived, thoroughly researched, logically structured, and clearly written. The writing is lively and the argument is clear and richly documented. While the focus is on post-World War II America, the book reaches back in time to virtually the entire history of Yiddish, but especially Yiddish in the modern period."—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Introduction: Postvernacularity, or Speaking of Yiddish
1. Imagining Yiddishland
2. Beyond the Mother Tongue
3. Founded in Translation
4. Yiddish as Performance Art
5. Absolut Tchotchke
6. Wanted Dead or Alive?
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Author's Note
Introduction: Postvernacularity, or Speaking of Yiddish
1. Imagining Yiddishland
2. Beyond the Mother Tongue
3. Founded in Translation
4. Yiddish as Performance Art
5. Absolut Tchotchke
6. Wanted Dead or Alive?
Notes
Index
Jewish Studies Bestsellers
