English 275 - Diasporic Homelands: Yiddish Literature of Place

(Offered as GERM 208, ENGL 275, and EUST 208) This course explores relationships to place, home, landscape, and belonging in Yiddish literature. From the Biblical Exodus to the Displaced Persons camps of post World War Two Europe, Jewish experience has been defined by exile, diaspora, displacement, and migration. A millennium before the “land of Israel” was a political reality, it was a spiritual longing for Jewish communities throughout Europe, for whom life in “exile”, in the diaspora, was an ongoing trial that would only end with the coming of Messiah. Jews were seen as (and saw themselves as) placeless, as not-at-home. The very concept of diaspora originated in this Jewish state of being. But what does it really mean to live in exile for hundreds of years? While the Jewish communities of Europe existed in precarious situations, often under threat of eviction or violence, they did exist, persist, and even thrive for centuries, co-existing with their non-Jewish neighbors. The Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities centered in Poland and spreading throughout central and eastern Europe created their own diasporic society and culture, a “Yiddishland” that existed in an archipelago of small towns and provincial cities. We will contextualize our reading of Yiddish literary works (read in English translation) with historical and scholarly sources on the concepts of exile, diaspora, place, landscape, and the very concept of Jews as a nation that continues to vex international politics to this day. We will seek comparative perspectives from other diasporic cultures (including African and Armenian diasporas), from earlier and later historical periods, and from other languages of Jewish experience including German. 
 

Conducted in English. No prior knowledge of Yiddish language or culture required. 

Spring 2026. Visiting Lecturer Madeleine (Mindl) Cohen.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: close reading, literary analysis, essay writing, critical thinking, discussion.