Language:
English
Year of publication:
2021
Titel der Quelle:
Places and Forms of Encounter in Jewish Literatures; Transfer, Mediality and Situativity
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2021) 226-253
Keywords:
Folk poetry, Yiddish History and criticism
;
Folk songs, Jewish History and criticism
;
Folk poetry, German Influence
;
Zionism and literature
Abstract:
Folk poetry anthologies were the product of a fruitful cultural exchange between Eastern and Central European Jewish cultures in search of renewed collective identities. The idea of collecting Yiddish folksongs was born in early 20th imperial Russia, i.e. at a time when ethnography was in its heyday, and a new secular culture was on the rise. Soon, cultural Zionists both in Yiddish speaking and in German speaking territories discovered Yiddish folk poetry as one pillar of a new Jewish culture. Two competing definitions of folk poetry were discussed: The first definition was based on the Romantic notion of songs being transmitted orally from generation to generation, while the second one defined the folksong as poetry written in a folk tone and evoking folk themes. While the early Russian collections of Yiddish folksongs used the notion of authenticity to invent a tradition, most German translators invented the future: the utopia of a united Jewry deeply rooted in its own culture.
DOI:
10.1163/9789004435285_012
URL:
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