Literary Science

Foreword

The purpose of this work is to acquaint the Yiddish reader with the theory, structure, and various forms of belletristic literature in general and Yiddish literature in particular.

The need for a work that would explain briefly, clearly, and in comprehensible language all literary concepts has been felt in the Yiddish book market for some time now. This lacuna became especially apparent recently: Yiddish literature has expanded greatly both in terms of quantity and quality, has acquired new literary forms, and has valued the works of older writers as increasingly treasured collections. I believe that the publication of this book will eliminate this deficiency.

In making my selections of literary scholarship I focused primarily on Yiddish literature. For this purpose, in almost every paragraph the explanation of a concept is followed by an example taken from the best Yiddish writers. Only when explaining literary forms that do not exist in Yiddish literature was I compelled to choose examples from other literatures. After all, the purpose of this work is to acquaint the reader with all literary forms that exist both in Yiddish and in world literature more broadly.

The book is divided into two volumes. The first concentrates more on Yiddish stylistics, the development of the Yiddish language, sentence structure, various language forms, and figures of speech, and only partially on literary forms. Literary forms are considered and discussed explicitly in the second volume.

Each volume is equipped with a table of contents, and at the end of the whole book are two alphabetized indices: an index of all the concepts that are explained in the book and the locations where they are mentioned, and another one listing all the authors whose works are used as examples in the book.

Finally, I feel obliged to express gratitude to all my friends who aided my work with advice and assistance. I thank especially Mr. Krinsky for his conscientious editing, his many remarks, and assistance in gathering material, as well as Mr. H. D. Nomberg for his help in correcting the text. [ . . . ]

[Volume 2] Table of Contents

1. The Difference between Prose and Poetry  7
2. Prose   -
3. Poetry   8
4. Prosaic and Poetic Works   10
5. Prosaic Works   -
6. Descriptive Works in General   11
7. General Scholarly and Artistic Descriptions 12
8. Characteristics   14
9. Travelogues   16
10. Fantastic Travelogues   22
11. Historical Works   -
12. Biography   -
13. Autobiography   30
14. Memoirs   34
15. Chronicles, Communal Record Books, and Minute Books   48
16. History   50
17. Philosophical or Scholarly Works. Criticism 60
18. Speeches   63
19. Prophecies   -
20. Greek and Roman Rhetorical Art, Parliamentary Speeches, Court Speeches   64
21. Homilies and Sermons, the Teachings of Itinerant Jewish Preachers   66
22. Modern Speeches   -

Poetic Works

23. Ideal, Type, Literary Streams, Positive Type, Negative Type, Idealistic, Realistic, Naturalistic, Fantastic   77
24. The Classification of Poetic Works   79
25. Folk Poetry and Its Meaning   80
26. Epic Poetry   -
27. Folk Epic   81
28. Folktales   82
29. Folk Songs: Epic, Historical, National-Religious, Messianic   83
30. Artistic Epics   85
31. Epic Poems   86
32. The Classical Epic Poem: Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid   -
33. The Mock-Classical Poem   89
34. Modern Epic Poem, Historical Epic Poem, Lyrical Epic Poem   -
35. Idylls   94
36. Novels   95
37. Short Story, Novella   97
38. Legends, Agadah   -
39. Ballads   102
40. Fables   103
41. Lyrical Poetry   107
42. Lyric Folk Songs   -
43. Religious and Hasidic Songs   108
44. Love Songs   109
45. Soldier Songs   110
46. Family Songs   111
47. Various Folk Songs   114
48. Artistic Lyric   115
49. Elegy   -
50. Ode   117
51. Hymn, Psalm   123
52. Satire   -
53. Generic Lyrical Poems, Romances, Motives, Lullabies   126
54. Dramatic Works, Acts, Scenes   134
55. The Greek Drama   136
56. The Modern European Drama   137
57. Tragedy   139
58. The Development of the Tragedy   140
59. Comedy   141
60. Drama Proper   142
61. Dramatic Art on the Yiddish Stage   143
62. Other Dramatic Works, oper, oper, Melodrama, Vaudeville, Farce   144