ISBN:
9781503627802
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (296 p)
Edition:
[Online-Ausgabe]
Year of publication:
2021
Series Statement:
Stanford Studies in Jewish History and C
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
Keywords:
Dance in literature
;
German fiction History and criticism
;
Jewish dance in literature
;
Jews in literature
;
Jews Cultural assimilation
;
History
;
Jews Social life and customs
;
Sex role in literature
;
Yiddish fiction History and criticism
;
LITERARY CRITICISM / Jewish
;
Courtship
;
German
;
Jewish gender roles
;
Literature
;
Mixed-sex dancing
;
Nineteenth century
;
Romance
;
Twentieth century
;
Yiddish
;
acculturation
Abstract:
Frontmatter -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION. THE SPACE OF THE DANCE FLOOR -- CHAPTER 1. THE CHOREOGRAPHY OF ACCULTURATION -- CHAPTER 2. HOW JEWS LEARNED TO DANCE -- CHAPTER 3. THE TAVERN -- CHAPTER 4. THE BALLROOM -- CHAPTER 5. THE WEDDING -- CHAPTER 6. THE DANCE HALL -- EPILOGUE. "WHAT COMES FROM MEN AND WOMEN DANCING" -- APPENDIX: LIST OF SOCIAL AND FOLK DANCES -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Abstract:
Dances and balls appear throughout world literature as venues for young people to meet, flirt, and form relationships, as any reader of Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, or Romeo and Juliet can attest. The popularity of social dance transcends class, gender, ethnic, and national boundaries. In the context of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jewish culture, dance offers crucial insights into debates about emancipation and acculturation. While traditional Jewish law prohibits men and women from dancing together, Jewish mixed-sex dancing was understood as the very sign of modernity--and the ultimate boundary transgression. Writers of modern Jewish literature deployed dance scenes as a charged and complex arena for understanding the limits of acculturation, the dangers of ethnic mixing, and the implications of shifting gender norms and marriage patterns, while simultaneously entertaining their readers. In this pioneering study, Sonia Gollance examines the specific literary qualities of dance scenes, while also paying close attention to the broader social implications of Jewish engagement with dance. Combining cultural history with literary analysis and drawing connections to contemporary representations of Jewish social dance, Gollance illustrates how mixed-sex dancing functions as a flexible metaphor for the concerns of Jewish communities in the face of cultural transitions
Note:
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
,
In English
DOI:
10.1515/9781503627802
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