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Book Chapter

Nostalgia and Creaturality in H. Leivick’s Тhe Golem

  • Laura Quercioli Mincer

This article examines some of the constituent elements of an often metaphysical "Jewish angst" or "Jewish toska" found in the Yiddish language drama "The Golem" (Der goylem, 1921). In this masterpiece by Russian Jewish writer H. Leivick, the renowned man-made clay giant clay of ancient Kabbalah legend, is the creature of sixteenth-century Rabbi Loew, the Maharal of Prague, and becomes an emblem of Jewish melancholic nostalgia. Such toska is directed simultaneously at the ontologically distant Creator, supremely unattainable, and at the equally unreachable messianic era. The Golem's sense of estrangement from his own existence, explored here in tandem with Leivick's biography, ultimately renders him a personification of nostalgia itself.

  • Keywords:
  • H. Leivick,
  • Yiddish Literature,
  • Russian Symbolism,
  • Golem,
  • Jewish Mysticism,
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Laura Quercioli Mincer

University of Genoa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-6957-0170

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  • Publication Year: 2015
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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Nostalgia and Creaturality in H. Leivick’s Тhe Golem

Authors

Laura Quercioli Mincer

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4.04

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2015

Copyright Information

© 2015 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Melancholic Identities, Toska and Reflective Nostalgia

Book Subtitle

Case Studies from Russian and Russian-Jewish Culture

Editors

Sara Dickinson, Laura Salmon

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

194

Publication Year

2015

Copyright Information

© 2015 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4

ISBN Print

978-88-6655-821-7

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6655-822-4

eISBN (xml)

978-88-9273-384-8

Series Title

Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici

Series ISSN

2612-7687

Series E-ISSN

2612-7679

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