Judaic Studies

Trauma and Memory, Rupture and Continuity: Yiddish Creativity after the Holocaust

This two-day scholars conference seeks to explore Yiddish creativity after the Holocaust. Over the last two decades significant scholarly work has been done on many aspects of Yiddish after the Holocaust, from the Yiddish press in the DP camps to the status, use, and significance of Yiddish in the countries of immigration of the Jews of eastern Europe. This conference will focus on the direct and indirect impact of the Holocaust on Yiddish creativity, especially in the field of literature, but also in drama, Yiddish linguistic research, and scholarship. The questions that the conference will seek to address are: How are Holocaust trauma and memory reflected in post-Holocaust Yiddish literary writing by both Holocaust survivors and other Yiddish writers? What characterizes post- Holocaust Yiddish writing in prose, poetry, and drama? How do these different authors describe/ imagine the pre-Holocaust world? Post-Holocaust Yiddish theater and drama: to what extent did these theatrical endeavors reflect rupture with, or continuation of pre-Holocaust Yiddish theater? How was the Holocaust reflected in the Yiddish theater (realm of memory, direct commemoration?) In which ways did Yiddish linguistic and other scholarship develop in the post-Holocaust world? How did Yiddish scholars see the development of Yiddish scholarship in that period. What were the goals and directions of Yiddish educators after the Holocaust? 25-30 minutes will be allotted for each paper; there will also be ample time for discussion.

 

Yiddish conference schedule for April 16th and 17th