ABSTRACT

Modernist Yiddish literature was an important part of the Yiddish-cultural response to the existential turmoil caused by the First World War. This “small literature,” to use Kafka’s phrase, came into being without the support of a nation-state and in an alien environment. In a 1922 edition of Warsaw’s avant-garde magazine Albatros, Yiddish poets reflected on their “wandering through various centres of their Jewish extraterritoriality.” Five years later, in 1927, when stateless Yiddish literature became a member of the International PEN Club, this existential extraterritoriality underwent a bold reinterpretation with the new concept of “Yiddishland.” My paper reconstructs the discourse that led to the transformation of the existential concept of eksteritoryalishkayt along with the creation of the cosmopolitan cultural project originally called “dos land yidish,” and later “Yiddishland:” a republic of words that unified the Yiddish speakers globally via literature and arts.

摘要

现代主义的意第绪文学是对第一次世界大战造成的生存动荡的意第绪文化回应的重要组成部分。用卡夫卡的话来说，这种“小文学”是在没有民族国家的支持和陌生环境下诞生的。在1922年的华沙前卫杂志《信天翁》中，意第绪诗人反映了他们的“徘徊在犹太人域外性的各个中心”。五年后的1927年，无国界的意第绪语文学成为国际笔会的成员，这种生存的域外性通过“意第绪语”这一新概念进行了大胆的重新诠释。我的论文重建了导致eksteritoryalishkayt存在概念转变的话语。连同最初被称为“ dos land yidish ”和后来的“ Yiddishland：”的国际化文化项目的创建，通过文字和艺术在全球范围内统一了意第绪语使用者。