From pamphlets that are read to tatters to imposing tomes that sit pristine and unopened, the “Yiddish bookshelf” reveals much about the trajectory of modern Yiddish culture and its particular history of displacement, interruption, and renewal. This course is both a general survey of the major developments in Yiddish publishing over the past 200 years and an introduction to methods in critical bibliography, i.e., studying books and documents as material objects. Together each week, we will read documents not for their literary content, but as objects whose material qualities impact their meaning. We will also make use of the unique resources in the area by visiting rare book collections and Judaica holdings at local university libraries and institutions.

This course is suitable even for students who are only beginning to develop familiarity with Yiddish language, as the focus is on training students to read texts alongside their material contexts.