To Be As Others: E. E. Lisitzky's Re-presentation of Native Americans
In the course of modern Hebrew literature's few dacades of taking root, flowering and waning in America, no poet has been more Americanized, prolific and varied in his output than Ephraim E. Lisitzky (1885-1962). As his fellow Hebrew writers, Lisitzky Americanized his oeuvre by sharing his impr...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
HUC
2003
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| In: |
Hebrew Union College annual
Year: 2002, Volume: 73, Pages: 249-297 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In the course of modern Hebrew literature's few dacades of taking root, flowering and waning in America, no poet has been more Americanized, prolific and varied in his output than Ephraim E. Lisitzky (1885-1962). As his fellow Hebrew writers, Lisitzky Americanized his oeuvre by sharing his impressions of the life, culture and landscape he encountered in the Golden Land. However he was also among a handful of Hebrew writers to address extensively the most marginalized minorities in the U.S., Indians and blacks. Of the latter, Lisitzky published a collection of poems, Bo'Oholey Khush (In the Tents of Kush, 1953). Writing of American Indians, though, Lisitzky's epic poem, Medurot do'akhot (Dying Campfires, 1937), is a unified story consisting of many original Indian folktales. This study seeks to illustrate the measure of Lisitzky's immersion in America by tracing his encounters with Indian tales throughout his literary career. It also seeks to identify the sources of these "original" (since they were already rendered into English and organized by non-native editors) tales, and understand their treatment by the Hebrew poet. As illustrated, Lisitzky did not adhere fully to the tales as found, but impressed them with his literary and ideological stamp, exhibiting Puritanical, maskilic values by extirpating the tales of their savage temperament or by rendering them in a heightened, literary style. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College annual
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