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The Poetics of Schadenfreude: N. B. Minkov on the Edge of Yiddish Diction

The Poetics of Schadenfreude: N. B. Minkov on the Edge of Yiddish Diction Nokhum Borukh Minkov (1893–1958), best known today as a literary critic and historian, was also a talented poet and co-founder of the Introspectivist movement (Inzikh) in Yiddish poetry in New York. The poetry created under the banner of this movement to whose ideas Minkov remained committed throughout his poetic career was full of complicated rhythmic schemes, kaleidoscopic imagery, and vibrant sound- and wordplay. In keeping with part of the Introspectivist program Minkov's poetry was keenly sensitive to the cultural resonances of Yiddish's linguistic strata and manipulated them to great effect. I will focus my attention on one especially resonant element daytshmerish, or spotlit Germanisms as a point of access to Minkov's poetic project. This essay aims to provide not only an analysis of the permutations of the emblematic use of both the word and the concept of Schadenfreude as the Germanism par excellence in Minkov's poetry, but offers that discussion as a way of understanding the significance of Introspectivist poetry in the interbellum period and the fraught relationship of Yiddish to German after the Holocaust. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Jewish Quarterly Review University of Pennsylvania Press

The Poetics of Schadenfreude: N. B. Minkov on the Edge of Yiddish Diction

Jewish Quarterly Review , Volume 98 (1) – Feb 25, 2008

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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
ISSN
1553-0604

Abstract

Nokhum Borukh Minkov (1893–1958), best known today as a literary critic and historian, was also a talented poet and co-founder of the Introspectivist movement (Inzikh) in Yiddish poetry in New York. The poetry created under the banner of this movement to whose ideas Minkov remained committed throughout his poetic career was full of complicated rhythmic schemes, kaleidoscopic imagery, and vibrant sound- and wordplay. In keeping with part of the Introspectivist program Minkov's poetry was keenly sensitive to the cultural resonances of Yiddish's linguistic strata and manipulated them to great effect. I will focus my attention on one especially resonant element daytshmerish, or spotlit Germanisms as a point of access to Minkov's poetic project. This essay aims to provide not only an analysis of the permutations of the emblematic use of both the word and the concept of Schadenfreude as the Germanism par excellence in Minkov's poetry, but offers that discussion as a way of understanding the significance of Introspectivist poetry in the interbellum period and the fraught relationship of Yiddish to German after the Holocaust.

Journal

Jewish Quarterly ReviewUniversity of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Feb 25, 2008

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