Yente Serdatsky
The story ”UNCHANGED”
from the Found Treasures 1. About the author
•was born on 15 September 1877 as Yente Raybman in Aleksotas(Aleksat), near Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania (then in Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire),
•the daughter of a used furniture dealer who was also a scholar. • She received a secular as well as a basic Jewish education, and learned German, Russian, and Hebrew. • The family home was a gathering place for Yiddish writers around Kovno, including Avrom Reyzen, and in this way she became acquainted with contemporary Yiddish literature. •In 1905, she left her family and moved to Warsaw, to pursue her writing. There she joined the literary circle around I. L. Peretz. •In 1906, reunited with her family, Serdatzky emigrated to the United States. •She published short stories, sketches, and one-act plays in Yiddish periodicals including Fraye arbeter shtime (Free Voice of Labor), Fraye gezelshaft (Free Society), Tsukunft(Future), Dos naye Land (The New Land), and Fraynd(Friend). And the Forverts (The Forward) 2. DISCUSSION:
When discussing this short but packed story, let’s:
1. Concentrate on the language in English translation? What's characterising in narration? Who is the narrator? 2. Are there moments where we see/feel "the clumsiness" of translation, which is deliberate to draw the attention to the translation and the original language of writing - Yiddish? 3. Let's enumerate the points into which the author divides her life and make a map of a poignant moments of a woman’s life? Give the title of this four chapters? What other chapters can we imagine? Part one? Part two? Part three? Part four...? 4. Women and madness, the attempt of suicide? Let's concentrate on this moment. Compare the description to other literary representation of women's depression? 5.what's the future? 6.The meaning of the title? 3. Sources:
•Adler, Ruth; Dishon, Judith; Hellerstein, Kathryn; Niger, Shmuel; Pratt, Norma Fain (1994). Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing. Wayne State University Press •Serdatzky, Yente. “Rosh Hashonah” [short story]. English translation read aloud by Linda Jiménez for Radio Sefarad •Serdatzky, Yente. "Platonic Love" [short story]. Trans. Jessica Kirzane. JewishFiction.net. April 2014. |
|
Other materials by Yente Serdatsky:
Yente Serdatsky was one of those writers once known to thousands—even tens of thousands—of Yiddish newspaper readers but never reached an audience beyond them
•https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/weekly-reader/weekly-reader-introduction-writer-yente-serdatsky Below some more material by the author: 1. CONFESSION, the story by Yente Serdatsky
2. JEWISH FEMINISM 1913:
YENTE SERDATSKY'S "CONFESSION" (review by Irena Klepfisz below)
3. Search for a Woman: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/pakn-treger/search-woman
4. Old woman with young dreams:https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/pakn-treger/2018-pakn-treger-translation-issue/old-woman-young-dreams
|