Professor Emeritus, Tikva Frymer-Kensky Collegiate Professor
norich@umich.eduLanguage Studies; Academics; Emeriti; Jewish American; Graduate Faculty; Comparative Literature; English; Twentieth Century American; American
Education/Degree:
Ph.D., Columbia 1979
Highlighted Work and Publications
Deborah
Esther Singer Kreitman; Anita Norich, Afterword
The lost world of early 20th century Jewish life in Eastern Europe-of lively shtetls and ghetto streets-is known by many through the books of I. B. and I. J. Singer. But few know the Singers had a sister who was also a gifted writer and who saw this same world through a woman's eyes. Originally published in Yiddish in 1936, Esther Kreitman's vivid and poignant autobiographical novel follows the life of Deborah, a rabbi's daughter, from the ages of 14 to 18. Because she is a girl, Deborah is condemned to household chores, barred from the books she yearns for and destined for an arranged marriage... See More
Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext
Anita Norich
These essays examine the ways in which Jewish culture has existed in a mutually enriching, if sometimes problematic, relationship with surrounding non-Jewish cultures. Leading scholars in Judaic studies take up broad methodological concerns and specific case studies illustrating Jewish embeddedness in other cultures and re-examining the famous “textuality” of the Jews, expanding the notion of “text” to include other works of art, both material and spiritual.
Writing in Tongues: Translating Yiddish in the Twentieth Century
Anita Norich
Writing in Tongues examines the complexities of translating Yiddish literature at a time when the Yiddish language is in decline. After the Holocaust, Soviet repression, and American assimilation, the survival of traditional Yiddish literature depends on translation, yet a few Yiddish classics have been translated repeatedly while many others have been ignored. Anita Norich traces historical and aesthetic shifts through versions of these canonical texts and she argues that these works and their...
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