Byron and the Jews

Cover

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Contents

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pp. vii-

Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-x

As what might be called an “accidental Byronist,” that is, as one who found her way to the British Romantic poet through Hebrew and Yiddish translations, I have had to rely a great deal on the kindness of others for help with this study. First, many Byron scholars were essential, not only for their published materials ...

A Note on the (Un)Translations

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pp. xi-xii

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations, or, to be more precise, “untranslations,” are mine. There are several stages involved in the process of translation. Beyond transferring the vocabulary from one language to another, translators must also consider the syntax, the patterns governing how words are put together ...

Introduction: Translation and Identity

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pp. 1-22

Several years ago, I compiled a bibliography of Hebrew and Yiddish translations of British Romantic literature and to my surprise found that Byron was the most frequently cited writer.¹ Given the unexpected results, I then determined to discover why approximately two dozen Jews, ...

Chapter 1. Byron and English Jews

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pp. 23-53

One thing that Byron had in common with Isaac D’Israeli and Isaac Nathan, the Jews discussed in this chapter, was the sense of alienation.¹ Although all three were born in Great Britain, Byron, raised a Scottish Calvinist, and the two English Jews suffered varying degrees of disabilities in a country that identified itself in part ...

Chapter 2. Byron and the Maskilim

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pp. 54-93

Given the close relationship between intellectual advances and religious reform, presentations of Byron have provided a touchstone for measuring attitudes toward the Haskalah in the East, where development was impeded by both internal and external pressures.¹ Unlike the more progressive West, ...

Chapter 3. Byron and the Yiddishists

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pp. 94-136

As Benjamin Harshav explains, the Yiddishist movement was part of a larger Jewish revolution, “not directed against a political power structure but rather against a governing semiotics, a set of beliefs, values, and behavior, and toward internalized ideals of a new world culture.”¹ ...

Chapter 4. Byron and the Zionists

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pp. 137-170

In contrast to the Yiddishists, many of whom were Golus-Nationalists, the secular Hebraists tended to be Zionists. After the pogroms of 1880–81, when central and eastern European Jews acknowledged what appeared to be the reality that they never would be fully assimilated into their dominant communities, ...

Conclusion: Translation and Allegoresis

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pp. 171-176

In its effect, if not its conscious intention, translation is a form of transcultural allegoresis.¹ Allegory, most often defined as an extended metaphor in which key figures symbolize abstract concepts, is a notoriously unstable genre, its dominant characteristic being the deliberate disruption ...

Appendix: Transcriptions

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pp. 177-202

Notes

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pp. 203-222

Bibliography

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pp. 223-236

Index

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pp. 237-244