The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

"Trying to Eat a Steak With a Butterknife": A Criticism of Analyzing Yiddish Literature with Theory

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Ken Frieden, B.G. Rudolph Professor of Judaic Studies at Syracuse University, recounts a bit of criticism directed at his book Classic Yiddish Fiction from a "nativist" Yiddishist, who alleged that the book's application of literary theory to Yiddish literature was too dense to process and inappropriate to attempt in the first place.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Ken Frieden.

This excerpt is in English.

Ken Frieden was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1955.

This interview is part of the Yiddish in the Academy: scholars, language instructors, and students series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

Menachem Mendel Lefin, a Yiddishist Maskil in Ukraine

2 min 15 sec

"The only person who will listen to me in Yiddish is my dog"

1 min 3 sec

"Maybe the best place in the world" for a Yiddish Program: Melbourne, Australia

1 min 34 sec

My Neighbor was the Grandson of the Great Yiddish Actor Jacob Adler

1 min 58 sec

"Assimilated Enough to Not Be Threatened" by Fiddler on the Roof

52 sec

Were Jewish Roots "Camouflaged" in My Father's Name?

1 min 3 sec

Coming to Yiddish Through Its Opposite: Germany

5 min 7 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

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