The Worlds of S. an-sky: A Russian Jewish Intellectual at the Turn of the Century(Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)

Sholmye-Zanvil Rappaport, known as An-sky (1863-1920), the author of the best known play in the Hebrew and Yiddish languages, "The Dybbuk," was a figure of immense versatility and also ambiguity in Russian and Jewish intellectual, literary, and political spheres. He was the rare Russian Jewish intellectual who left a considerable mark on all these spheres and, indeed, more. He was a leading Russian populist; he was the author of the poem adopted as the anthem of the Jewish Socialist Labor Bund; he is credited with being the founder of the field of Jewish ethnography; and he wrote one of the most influential works of Jewish catastrophe literature in modern times, his masterpiece "Hurbm Galitsye," on the travails of East European Jews in the First World War. This volume is the fullest and most complete examination of An-sky ever produced. It draws together leading historians, ethnographers, literary scholars, and others in a far-ranging, multidisciplinary exploration. It also contains numerous photographs culled from archives in the former Soviet Union, a superb English translation of an early Russian draft - among the very first - of the "The Dybbuk," and a timeline that covers all of An-sky's peripatetic life. Finally, it includes a compact disk combining material drawn from An-sky's own 1912-14 field recordings of Jewish songs, together with contemporary renditions, recorded at Stanford of the Russian and Yiddish music that An-sky wrote, collected, and heard.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Figures and Map Preface and Acknowledgments Gabriella Safran and Steven J. Zipperstein Timeline: Semyon Akimovich An-sky/Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport Gabriella Safran Key Archival Sources Key Printed Sources Introduction: An-sky and the Guises of Modern Jewish Culture Steven J. Zipperstein 1. An-sky, Sholem Aleichem, and the Master Narrative of Russian Jewry David Roskies 2. Paradigmatic Times: An-sky's Two Worlds Sylvie Anne Goldberg 3. An-sky in 1892: The Jew and the Petersburg Myth Gabriella Safran 4. "We Are Too Late": An-sky and the Paradigm of No Return Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern 5. Spiritual and Physical Strength in An-sky's Literary Imagination Brian Horowitz 6. The Russian Jew as a Modern Hero: Identity Construction in An-sky's Writings Mikhail Krutikov 7. "Youth in Revolt": An-sky's In Shtrom and the Instant Fictionalization of 1905 Jonathan Frankel 8. Inscribing An-sky's Dybbuk in Russian and Jewish Letters Seth L. Wolitz 9. The Musical Strands of An-sky's Texts and Contexts Izaly Zemtsovsky 10. "Fardibekt!": An-sky's Polish Legacy Michael C. Steinlauf 11. An-sky, Evgeny Vakhtangov, and The Dybbuk Vladislav Ivanov 12. An-sky and the Ethnography of Jewish Women Nathaniel Deutsch 13. "An Academy Where Folklore Will be Studied": An-sky and the Jewish Museum Benjamin Lukin 14. Ethnic Loyalty and International Modernism: The An-sky Expeditions and the Russian Avant-Garde John E. Bowlt 15. An-sky, the Vilna Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Society, and the Shaping of Modern Jewish Culture Cecile E. Kuznitz 16. The Father of Jewish Ethnography? Jack Kugelmass Appendix: The Dybbuk S. An-sky, Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk): Censored Variant Introduction by Vladislav Ivanov Translators' Note Craig Cravens and Gabriella Safran Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk): A Jewish Dramatic Legend in Four Acts with Prologue and Epilogue, by S. An-sky Edited by Vladislav Ivanov; translated by Craig Cravens Glossary Vladislav Ivanov Notes Index

About the Author :
Gabriella Safran is Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stanford University. She is the author of the prize-winning book Rewriting the Jew: Assimilation Narratives in the Russian Empire (Stanford University Press, 2000). Steven Zipperstein is Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History and Co-Director of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford. His works include The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794-1881 (Stanford University Press, 1985).

Review :
"This is a splendid collection, outstandingly well produced and deserving of a wide readership within and outside the world of Russian and Russian-Jewish studies." - Slavic and East European Journal "Collections of conference papers rarely generate the kind of dramatic tension that we find in this book... Editors Safran and Zipperstein have lifted An-sky from [a] subordinate position and situated him at the center of a sub-field of Slavic-Jewish studies." - Slavic Review "[The] articles in this fascinating edited volume... deal with what could be called An-sky's Jewish world, the world in which as a leading intellectual, playwright, ethnographer, and public activist, he made his greatest impact." - Russian Review "This text will prove invaluable to scholars, both as a reference guide on An-sky as a historic and literary text on a remarkable man and the period in which he lived. General readers with an interest in Russian or Jewish history, culture, and literature will find that this text is readily accessible and enthralling to read." - History in Reviewx "A volume of great value. Readers approaching the book knowing nothing of An-sky will find much to hold their attention and will leave it well informed. Readers well-versed in An-sky's work and familiar with the relevant scholarship will find a great deal to chew on as well. Also, the addition of the translated text of The Dybbuk and the music CD makes the more affordable paperback edition a valuable teaching tool." - H-Net Reviews