Yiddish Modernism in Ukraine

This is a live seminar course and enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. The course will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Tetyana Yakovleva

Literary modernism, originated in the late 19th century in Europe, reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932 in the Soviet Union. This course provides a survey of Yiddish Modernism in Ukraine in 1920-30s, which was influenced by European avant-garde movements such as Futurism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Symbolism and Surrealism. We will read and discuss selected prose, poetry, and press works representing eminent Soviet Yiddish poets and writers such as Dovid Hofshteyn, Perets Markish, Leyb Kvitko, Nokhem Shtif, Dovid Bergelson, Der Nister, and Kalmen Zingman. Many of them were members of the Kiev’s Kultur-lige and the Jewish Anti–Fascist Committee, who were all executed during the liquidation of Yiddish culture in the Soviet Union in 1950-1952.

All texts will be given and discussed in English. The course is designed for students of different backgrounds. Students will explore texts that are fundamental for the understanding of Yiddish Modernism and they will be able to interpret literary works in connection with social, historical, and cultural issues. Every session will incorporate visual material such as texts, pictures, illustrations, and online exhibitions.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally to students throughout the class.

Tetyana Yakovleva is Vice-President and Yiddish Lecturer of the Yiddish Arts and Academics Association of North America (YAAANA) in San Diego. She studied Comparative Literature, Classical, Slavic, Jewish, and Media Studies in Ukraine (Kharkiv National Karazin-University), Germany (University of Regensburg), Italy (University of Bari Aldo Moro), and the USA (University of California in San Diego). She received a PhD in Slavic-Jewish Studies from Regensburg University. Tetyana is currently writing a book about Odessa 1905 in Russian Jewish Literature. Her academic research interests include 20th-century Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Russian literature, Spatial Literary Studies, and Modernism in Ukraine. Tetyana writes in Russian, Ukrainian, German, English, and Yiddish.

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