Sholem Asch and the shift in his reputation: "The Nazarene" as culprit or victim?
Item
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Title
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Sholem Asch and the shift in his reputation: "The Nazarene" as culprit or victim?
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Identifier
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AAI9417459
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identifier
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9417459
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Creator
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Fischthal, Hannah Berliner.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Morris Dickstein
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Date
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1994
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, American | Literature, Slavic and East European | Literature, Germanic | Literature, Modern
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines the shift in the reputation of Yiddish writer Sholem Asch, who was the most highly regarded Yiddish author up until the publication of his novel The Nazarene in 1939, when he suddenly became the target of critical and even physical abuse by his former Yiddish audience. While the text could not even find a Yiddish publisher until 1943, it became a critically acclaimed as well as a bestselling novel in English translation. This thesis, which investigates the reasons for the change in Asch's reputation, finds that the esteem, or, later, the lack of esteem in which Asch was held, was only marginally due to the literary value and contents of the works he produced. Extrinsic factors--historical, religious, social, personal--were the more significant determinants of Asch's reputation.;In Chapter 1 I discuss Asch's stature in the field of Yiddish letters and the genuine and permanent contributions he has made. I then contrast the two opposite receptions of The Nazarene: angry hostility for its pro-Christian sympathies by the Yiddish audience, compared to avid praise by the English-language audience, who, inversely, appreciated the novel for its essential Jewishness as well as for its literary achievements, especially in the genre of historical fiction.;In Chapter 2 I investigate Christian themes in Yiddish literature, and I trace Asch's continuous use of this material for over three decades. Chapter 3 focuses on the volatile relationship between Asch and Yiddish newspaper magnate Ab Cahan; I emphasize Cahan's enormous influence in effectively slandering the novelist.;Chapters 4 and 5 develop additional reasons for the plunge in Asch's popularity among his Yiddish audience: his nonfiction, envy by other writers, his history of antagonizing his audience, his arrogance, and the bad-timing of the novel, which coincided with the Holocaust.;In Chapters 6 and 7 I discuss The Nazarene and compare it to other fictional biographies of Jesus. In the final chapter, I conclude that the text of The Nazarene was unfairly condemned by its audience. My appraisal of its literary merits calls for a reevaluation of Asch's reputation.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
