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| A gloomy wedding By Mordechai Spektor in Yiddish Tales https://kidforum.otoiu.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=330 |
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| Author: | alinalumei [ 17 Nov 2018 10:49 ] |
| Post subject: | A gloomy wedding By Mordechai Spektor in Yiddish Tales |
A gloomy wedding By Mordechai Spektor In Yiddish Tales, translated by Helena Frank Copyright 1912, by the Jewish Publication Society of America A gloomy wedding was published in the United States of America in English translated from the original version written in Yiddish. It was written/collected originally by Mordechai Spektor one of the most prolific Yiddish writers of the 19th century. He is considered one of the veterans of this kind of literature among notable names like I.L. Perez and Shalom Aleichem. The consulted collection has 48 tales largely collected from magazines and papers and unbound booklets. Most of them were translated from Yiddish and some from Hebrew by Helena Frank, published in 1912, by the Jewish Publication Society of America. The story takes place in late 19th century Poland in a Jewish, generically called, shtetl. The plot is centered on the social life of a traditional Jewish family that is about to join the big wedding of the youngest son of the family who has been accepted as a groom and future husband in a wealthy Jewish family in Warsaw. The news is received with great joy and enthusiasm especially of the Mother-Gittle, a widow who during the past years also prompted some question regarding the youngest son celibate which took longer than expected and turned into more like a rebellious one. Happy to have settled him down she is the only one of the family that will join the big fancy wedding since the rest of the siblings and family questions the choice of the groom and the planned wedding. The traditional mother’s expectations of the wedding will soon be deceived when she realizes the huge changes that the new Jewish world has developed. Feeling odd and uneasy and completely left out of her familiar social context she faints at the wedding and during her recovery, she recalls the traditional wedding of her last son and the ‘’right way to do it”. Returning back home, sad and alone, she looks twenty years older than the day she received the happy wedding note when her face and body flourished with enthusiasm and happiness when hearing about the wedding. Placing the story into the Aarne-Thomson-Uther classification we may consider it as part of the Realistic Tales. The characters and their functions smoothly submit to the theoretical structure of Propps study. There is the initial context of the story-the Jewish Traditional family in Poland at the end of the 19th century, the members of the family are enumerated and the hero is briefly mentioned. I. The youngest member of the family Moishele is absented, in this tale as well, he departed to study elsewhere and kept distant for a long time. II. The interdiction was in this particular case more like a suggestion, to study close to the family and not leave it, considering the whole context with the father’s death. Still, Moishele left and soon was to be found as being the lover of a rich countess. This may very well be considered as the : III. Violation of the interdiction: staying with the family and keeping the traditions. The Villain, the rich sophisticated nontraditional daughter in law comes and disturbs the peace of the family. She is considered to be the personification of the new secular world that is endangering the well-settled norms of the traditional Jewish life. IV. The descriptive part of the crowd at the wedding is actually describing the new world that will soon prove to be as overwhelming for the traditional Jewish mother who, by her own analyses, will define the ‘’precious objects”: the other wedding and the mother’s contribution to it, the respect and pride she received as being the groom’s mother-Tradition. V. The information about the Victim, who is now the mother, will slowly take shape in the time of recovery from the faint when she is unconsciously revealing her personality features. VI. The Villain attempts are utterly aggressive but very hurtful in the nonchalant way of receiving the gifts from the old-fashioned mother in law. VII. The Victim/Mother eventually gives in and submits to deception. VIII. VIII. The Villain causes physical, emotional harm to the Mother as she “grows” 20 years older by the time she gets back from the wedding. There are several editions of this Collection of Yiddish Tales published with the same translation but by different publishing houses as well as audio versions of the tale. The tale is still known today mostly in the Jewish topic related studies and used as a parallel to the development of the new social norms in contemporary times. Sources: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article ... or_Mordkhe https://archive.org/search.php?query=a% ... %20wedding http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/05/m ... ector.html Alina Lumei LECT I |
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| Author: | DTimea [ 19 Jan 2020 20:59 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: A gloomy wedding By Mordechai Spektor in Yiddish Tales |
A gloomy wedding by Mordechai Spektor A. Context The original version was written in Yiddish. Mordecai Spektor collected these stories into the volume intitled Yiddish Tales. This collection has 48 tales. These stories were translated to English by Helena Frank and published by the Jewish Publication Society of America in 19912. B. Summary The story prezents the life of a traditional Jewish family. One day the mother, Gittle, receives a letter in which her youngest son invites the family to his wedding in Warsaw. Gittle read the letter with joy and happiness because she was afraid that her son will never marry. He has a strong character, he even went abroad despite his mother's will, he seldom wrote letters to the family. Gittle is the only one who will attend the wedding. She takes out her watered silk dress, she polishes her jewelry. One week before the wedding they baked spice-cakes, pancakes and almond-rolls. She even ordered a wig for the bride and silver candlesticks. She starts the journey cheerful and happy but as he arrives at the wedding and sees all the women wearing short dresses she starts to feel unconfortable. She couldn't endure the odor of their skin, the powder, and parfumes so she faints. While she was regaining her strenghts she thinks about the traditional wedding. The story ends withs Gittle returning home looking 20 years older in contrast with the begining where she was described as looking 20 years younger in her dress. C. Position in the Aarne-Thomson-Uther Index This story can be classified as a Realistic Tale 850-999 D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp 1. Abstentation: Moishele went studying abroad against his mother's wishes, later droped out, after a long time returned home to see his mother but went away again and from that point on he rarely wrote to her. 2. Interdiction: Gittle asked and begged his younger son to stay at home and study in the country. 3. Violation of the interdiction: Moisehles goes abroad. After several years he writes a letter in which he informs the family that he will marry a wealthy woman. This modern wedding disturbes the family's peace especially Gittle's. 4. Delivery: The bride receives the gifts from Gittle. The cakes were never unpacked, they will be trown away, the wig was not required as Moishehle told her mother, the candlesticks were accepted with embarrassment. 5. Complicity: Gittle taken in by deception unwittingly. 6. Villain causes harm to family members: Gittle faints because what she sees at the wedding, understands that her son will lead a different life as her's, not a traditional one. At the end she returns home looking 20 years older than before. E. Sources: [url]yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Spektor_Mordkhe[/url] |
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| Author: | iulia s [ 04 Feb 2020 11:49 ] |
| Post subject: | The Norka - Russian FT |
The Norka The story was selected from the volume Russian Folk-Tales by W. R. S. Raltson. The author did not only write and study fairy tales, but he also translated them from Russian. Later on, the stories were retold to in a language more suitable for children. Still, the British scholar remains one of the main contributors and spreaders of Russian folk tales though Europe. The story presents a king whose animals are constantly killed by a certain beast. His sons take turns to catch it but only the youngest, Ivan, can wound it. He then goes in the other world after it, where he meets the beast's sisters. All three fall in love with him and the youngest gives him a sword and guides Ivan to kill the beast, so he does. His brothers stop him from returning into his world so he is helped by a bird. Back home, he helps the tailor make the underworld wedding dresses for the maids and he is finally recognized by the youngest. Ivan explains everything to his father and his brothers are punished. Types of Characters The hero: prince Ivan The villain: the Norka The princess: the Norka’s sisters The father: the king The donor: the youngest sister of Norka The magical helper: the bird The false hero: the hero’s brothers The Functions Initial situation: a beast is attacking the king’s animals Abstention: the two older brothers try to catch the beast Interdiction: the family laughs at the youngest son for wanting to undertake the task Violation of interdiction: the youngest tries anyway Reconnaissance: the beast meets the prince and they fight Trickery: the Norka pretends to be asleep Mediation: the prince tells his father about the fight Departure: the hero as well as his brothers and servants leave home Testing: horse brings him to a copper palace, a silver one, and a golden one Acquisition: the hero is offered a sword The victory: the hero kills Norka Pursuit: hero’s brothers try to kill him Rescue: a bird helps the hero get back into his world Arrival: the prince arrives in his world Task/recognition: the hero brings his wives the dresses they wished for Punishment: the king punishes the other two sons Wedding: the hero marries the three girls Ordinary folk tale 1137 man kills the orge: self did |
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