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Revolution in a Shtetl: Literary Image and Historical Representation

Publication date: 13.12.2017

Studia Judaica, 2017, No 1 (39), pp. 17 - 45

https://doi.org/10.4467/24500100STJ.17.002.7728

Authors

Piotr Laskowski
University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland
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Titles

Revolution in a Shtetl: Literary Image and Historical Representation

Abstract

The paper analyses a specific form of revolutionary collectivity referred to as akhdes by Jewish militants of 1905. This peculiar political subjectivity, which emerged independently of mass political parties, could hardly be recognized and apprehended by historians. However, it was perceived by some Yiddish writers who instantaneously fictionalized revolutionary events of 1905. The way the revolted crowd (oylem) was rendered both in historical and literary works is reconsidered with reference to the concepts coined by recent political philosophy (particularly, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Paolo Virno). The paper is composed of three parts. The first part reviews briefly some of the attempts at writing the history of crowds. The second part is devoted to revolutionary events of 1905 in a specific place, the shtetl of Krynki, which—due to the intensity of the revolt there—attracted particular attention of historians. The third part focuses on Isaac Meir Weissenberg’s novella, A Shtetl, published in 1907, to suggest a political reading that could inform historical narrations insofar as they try to apprehend the dynamics of the revolution itself.

References


Information

Information: Studia Judaica, 2017, No 1 (39), pp. 17 - 45

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Revolution in a Shtetl: Literary Image and Historical Representation

English:

Revolution in a Shtetl: Literary Image and Historical Representation

Authors

University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Published at: 13.12.2017

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Piotr Laskowski (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English