“Daytsh iz dokh Yidish:” Sholem Aleichem’s Motl the Cantor’s Son as Born-Translated Literature

Sholem Aleichem's unfinished story cycle 'Motl the Cantor’s Son' challenges traditional narratives of Jewish diaspora literature, revealing the linguistic and ideological complexities of Eastern European Jewish life on the eve of the First World War. The study highlights how Sholem Aleichem's works, often perceived as evoking a lost shtetl world, were also deeply engaged with contemporary Zionist movements and multilingual Jewish communities. By analyzing the story cycle, which traces the journey of a widow and her children from Ukraine to America, the research underscores the tragic demise of Eastern European Jewish life through the lens of Motl's comic yet poignant observations. This approach disrupts simplistic oppositions between persecution in the 'Old Country' and renewal in America, offering a nuanced perspective on language, territory, and identity in world literature.

Boyden, M. (2016). “Daytsh iz dokh Yidish:” Sholem Aleichem’s Motl the Cantor’s Son as Born-Translated Literature. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée, 43(3), 393–405. https://doi.org/10.1353/crc.2016.0031