Contained in:
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,
+ Show More

Laura Quercioli Mincer

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

  1. Bertolone P. (2012) - Moni Blues. Il teatro di Moni Ovadia, Universitalia, Roma.
  2. Boym S. (2001) - The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, New York.
  3. Dinse H., Liptzin S. (1978) - Einführung in die jiddische Literatur, Metzler, Stuttgart.
  4. Eidherr A. (2012) - Das Vorhaben der deutschen Übersetzung von H. Leivicks “Der Goylem” (1921). Ein Arbeitsbericht, in F. Grucza (ed.), Akten des XII. Internationalen Germanistenkongresses Warschau 2010. Vielheit und Einheit der Germanistik weltweit, III, P. Lang, Frankfurt am Mein, 21-25.
  5. Facioni S. (2005) - La cattura dell’origine. Verità e narrazione nella tradizione ebraica, Jaca Book, Milano.
  6. Goldsmith E.S. (1997) - Modem Yiddish Culture: The Story of the Yiddish Language Movement, Fordham University Press, New York.
  7. Goldsmith E.S. (2003) - H. Leivick, in S.L. Kremer (ed.), Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and their Work, Routledge, New York-London, 732-737.
  8. Goodhart S. (1992) - ‘One Isaac Waiting to Be Slaughtered’: Halpern Leivick, the Holocaust, and Responsibility, “Philosophy and Literature”, XVI.1, 88-105.
  9. Green A. (1999) - These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life, Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock (NY).
  10. Grimm J., Grimm W. (1838) - Deutsches Worterbuch (1854-1961), cf. <http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/> (cons. 04.23.14).
  11. Harshav B., Harshav B. (eds.) (1986) - American Yiddish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology, California University Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London.
  12. Idel M. (1990) - Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions in the Artificial Anthropoid, Suny Press, New York.
  13. Jankélévitch V. (1974) - L ’irréversible et la nostalgie, Flammarion, Paris.
  14. Kafka F. (2012) - A Hunger Artist and Other Stories, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
  15. Kalk Lubatti G. (1956) - Introduzione, in H. Leivick, Il Golem. Poema drammatico in otto quadri, Scuola Superiore di Studi Ebraici “Fondazione Sally Mayer”, Milano, 5-15.
  16. Landis J.C. (ed.) (1966) - Three Great Jewish Plays, Applause Theatre Book Publishers, New York.
  17. Leivick H. (1986) - Oyfn di vegn Sibirer (On the Road to Siberia), in B. Harshav, B. Harshav (eds.), American Yiddish Poetry. A Bilingual Anthology, California University Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London (= Yiddish-English Parallel Texts), 678-769.
  18. Leivick H. (2006) - The Golem, in J. Neugroschel (ed. and trans.), The Golem. A New Translation of the Classic Play and Selected Short Stories, W.W. Norton & Co., New York-London, 111-254.
  19. Leivick H. (2012) - Der goylem. Dramatishe poeme in akht bilder, Ulan Press (UK) (anastatic reprint, orig. ed.: Kultur-Lige, Warszawa 1922).
  20. Löwy M. (1981) - Messianisme juif et utopies libertaires en Europe Centrale (1905-1923), “Archives de sciences sociales des religions”, LI.1, 5-47.
  21. Lukács G. (1985) - The Theory of the Novel: A Historico-Philosophical Essay on the Forms of Great Epic Literature, MIT Press, Cambridge.
  22. Mandel A. (1963) - La voie du chassidisme, Calmann-Lévy, Paris.
  23. Nahson E. (1998) - Art and Politics: The Case of the Artef Theatre, 1925-1940, in D.-B. Kerler (ed.), The Politics of Yiddish, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek-London-New Delhi, 133-146.
  24. Neugroschel J. (2006) - The Golem. New Translation of the Classic Play and Selected Short Stories, Norton & Co., New York-London.
  25. Otto R. (2004) - Das Heilige: über das Irrationale in der Idee des Göttlichen und sein Verhältnis zum Rationalen, Beck, München.
  26. Rosenberg W. (2001) - Legacy of Rage: Jewish Masculinity, Violence and Culture, Massachusetts University Press, Amherst.
  27. Roskies D.G. (1984) - Against the Apocalypse: Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge-London.
  28. Schachter A. (2006) - The Shtetl and the City: The Origins of Nostalgia in Ba-yamim ha-hem and Shloyme reb khayims, “Jewish Social Studies”, XII.3, 73-94.
  29. Scholem G. (1995) - Towards an Understanding of the Messianic Idea in Judaism, in Id., The Messianic Idea in Judaism, Schocken Books, New York, 1-36.
  30. Schwarz J. (2008) - 1953/1954: A Year in Yiddish Literature, in E. Mendelsohn (ed.), The Jews and the Sporting Life, Hebrew University-Oxford University Press, Jerusalem-Oxford (= Studies in Contemporary Jewry, 23).
  31. Slezkine Y. (2004) - The Jewish Century, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  32. Watowa O. (1990) - Wszystko co najważniejsze..., Czytelnik, Warszawa.
  33. Zylbercweig Z. (1934) - H. Leivick (adapted from the original Yiddish text Leksikon fun yidishn teater, II, 1059), cf. <http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/L/leivick-h.htm> (cons. 02.13.15)
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Pages: 57-74
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

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

301

Fulltext
downloads

337

Views

Export Citation

1,347

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

2,262

Book Chapters

3,790,127

Fulltext
downloads

4,421

Authors

from 923 Research Institutions

of 65 Nations

65

scientific boards

from 348 Research Institutions

of 43 Nations

1,248

Referees

from 380 Research Institutions

of 38 Nations