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Gender Roles, Love, and Romance. In Yiddish Literature and film. Family Values, Love, and Romance. Good daughter and a doting father. Cross-dressing without provocation , for a defensive purpose . Reinforcement of traditional morality. “Desexualized” love scenes.
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Gender Roles,Love, and Romance In Yiddish Literature and film
Family Values, Love, and Romance • Good daughter and a doting father. • Cross-dressing without provocation, for a defensive purpose. • Reinforcement of traditional morality. • “Desexualized” love scenes. • Comedic and comic approach. • Four different love stories in the film, all leading to marriage.
“Yentl the Yeshiva Boy”by Isaac Bashevis Singer • How is Yentl different from a traditional Jewish woman? • What similarities are there between “Yentl” and Yiddle (characters, events, scenes, etc.)? • What are the differences between Yentl and Hadass? • How is gender confusion presented?
Dvora (Devorah) Baron (1887-1956) • Born in a shtetl in Belorussia. • Daughter of a rabbi. • Under her father’s guidance, studied the same things as boys; received secular education as well. • Started writing in Yiddish as a young teen. • In 1910, moved to Palestine. • Switched to writing in Hebrew. • Was rebellious against traditional gender roles.
“Kaddish” by Dvora Baron • What happens to the culturally prescribed gender roles in the story? • Who and why allows/promotes female religious education? • How can the ending be interpreted?
“BubbeHenya” by Dvora Baron • What qualities is the old woman ascribed in the story? • What traditional aspects of women’s life are depicted? • What functions unusual for her gender does the protagonist perform? • How and why is she described as a mysterious figure?
“Holiday Dainties”by Sholem Aleichem • Who is the narrator? • What topics does she touch upon? • What does she say about gender roles? • How does her language characterize her? • What are her “others,” her “us” and “them”?
David Bergelson(1884 –1952) • Born in a shtetl in Ukraine. • Lived in Germany before the rise of Nazis. • Died (executed) in the Stalinist Soviet Union. • Social activist, proponent of Yiddish culture. • Wrote essays, novels, and short stories in Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish. • Avant-gard, impressionist prose.
“In the Boardinghouse”by David Bergelson • What’s “suspicious” about the boardinghouse? To whom? • What are the girls’ most striking characteristics? • How is their social status described? • Who and why gossips about the girls?