Introduction to Old Yiddish Literature
ISBN13: 9780199276332ISBN10: 0199276331
Hardback,
488 pages
Jul 2005,
In Stock
Price:
$199.00 (06)Description
The field of early Yiddish studies has so far only been accessible to specialist scholars. This remarkable study opens up to a more general audience the cultural richness of that broad and deep corpus of literature that stretches from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century. The literature spans a wide spectrum of genres, from love lyric to kabbalistic treatises, and from travelogue to Renaissance adventure epic. The diverse world of Ashkenazic Jewry comes alive in this survey of its literature.Features
- Presents a comprehensive survey of a fascinating literature that is still relatively unknown
- Provides scholarly detail but is also accessible to non-specialists
Reviews
"Jerold Frakes's translation and revision of Jean Baumgarten's history of Old Yiddish literature is a welcome addition to the limited library of books in English on early Yiddish language and literature; Baumgarten's book is the best available history of and introduction to Yiddish literature of the medieval and early modern periods. It is a work that anyone with an interest in the development of vernacular literature or in religion and literature in the medieval and early modern periods should know."--David Elton Gay, Sixteenth Century Journal


