1943 - Yitskhok Bashevis' Magical Year of Demons, Feuilletons and American Citizenship
Sun, May 23
|Live via Zoom
Jan Schwarz will examine the year 1943 in Bashevis' literary career in the context of his output as journalist and fiction writer, and relationship to his two siblings.
Time & Location
May 23, 2021, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT
Live via Zoom
About the Event
During 1943, with the relentlessly tragic news about the genocide of the European Jews, the Yiddish writer Yitskhok Bashevis (later known as I.B.Singer) published 'Satan in Goray and Other Stories' in New York. In addition to the reprint of his debut novel, the book featured a series of monologues narrated by 'the Evil one'. This is the beginning of Bashevis' demonological work.
The same year, Yitskhok Varshavsky, one of Bashevis' journalistic pseudonyms, continued his prolific output as feuilleton writer at the Forverts, the main Yiddish newspaper in the US. In his personal life, 1943 was a turning point as well: he became an American citizen and received the devasting news that his mother and youngest brother had perished in the Soviet Gulag.
The lecture will examine the annus mirabilis in Bashevis' literary career in the context of his prolific output as journalist and fiction writer, and relationship to his two siblings,…