Bashevis Reconsidered
Rereading Singer through Gender and Queer Lenses
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6454189 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Agnieszka Legutko (Columbia University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 213-225 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981 (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0271-9274 • E-ISSN: 1948-5077 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/studamerijewilite.44.2.0213 |
| OpenAlex | W4416319949 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
Departing from the conventional reading of Singer through the biographical prism that perceives him as an anti-modernist misogynist, this article proposes a new approach to Bashevis’s literary legacy. Rereading Bashevis through gender and queer lenses—focusing on works available only in Yiddish: “Vayber” (1925), Yarme un Keyle (1976–77), and Di Mishpokhe (1982–83)—reveals unexpected feminist aspects of Bashevis’s writing: his profound exploration of complexities of gender, sexuality, female agency, and rebellion against heteronormativity. Moreover, Singer’s aesthetic of darkness and pessimism resonate with Jack Halberstam’s concept of the queer art of failure
| Highly cited | No |
|---|