Chana Kronfeld. On the Margins of Moderism: Decentering Literary Dynamics

Review of Chana Kronfeld\u27s work On the Margins of Modernism: Decentering Literary Dynamics

Yiddish Fiction and the Crisis of Modernity, 1905-1914

Review of Mikhail Krutikov\u27s Yiddish Fiction and the Crisis of Modernity, 1905-1914

Yael S. Feldman. Modernism and Culture Transfer: Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literacy Bilingualism

Review of Yael S. Feldman\u27s work Modernism and Cultural Transfer: Gabriel Preil and the Tradition of Jewish Literary Bilingualism

Genius and Monologue

Genius is the intellectual obsession of our time, Ken Frieden writes, and monologue is one symptom of the disorder. From ancient, spiritual conceptions of genius to modern notions of the extraordinary mind, Frieden traces associated philosophic and literary expressions of inspiration and individuality. Frieden juxtaposes the evolving forms of genius with traditions of monologue in pre-Shakespearean and Shakespearean drama, Romantic poetry, and nineteenthand twentieth-century fiction. He delineates the linguistic mechanisms that have shaped the dominant ideology of genius, showing that while literary monologues typically break the conventions of dialogue, aethetics ultimately identifies originality with deviance and madness. The successive guises of genius have gradually displaced divine intervention, and language has usurped the role of external inspiration. Ken Frieden\u27s provocative and wideranging study revises some traditional assumptions of literary theory and intellectual history and sheds light on the fictions of divinity and subjectivity in literature. It will interest scholars and students of literary theory as well as comparativists, intellectual and literary historians, and philosophers.https://surface.syr.edu/books/1012/thumbnail.jp

All Dreams Follow the Mouth : The Dream-Interpreter as Prophet

Freud\u27s talking cure and methods of dream interpretation have occasionallybeen understood in the context of Jewish traditions, yet the natureof this association remains a matter of dispute} Without making anyclaims concerning influence or continuity, this essay attends to some resonancesbetween Talmudic, Freudian, and Lacanian thought, which nodoubt merit a full-length study

Taking the Mother Tongue to Task

Review of Benjamin Harshav\u27s work The Meaning of Yiddish