Translating the Self

Examines how Jewish writers who translated their own works between Hebrew and Yiddish challenged fundamental assumptions about originality and national identity.

What happens when the same author writes the same work in two different languages? Translating the Self explores this question through the lens of Hebrew-Yiddish literary self-translation, revealing how this practice became a flashpoint for debates about Jewish national culture, identity, and the nature of literary originality itself. Spanning modern Jewish literature from the late nineteenth century to today, this book examines four major writers—Aharon Reuveni, Hirsh Dovid Nomberg, Zalman Shneour, and Avot Yeshurun—who navigated the complex terrain between Hebrew and Yiddish through innovative acts of self-translation. As Jewish nationalism increasingly demanded monolingual practices, these writers developed creative strategies to maintain bilingual literary practices while confronting fundamental questions: What constitutes an "original" work? How do languages shape national identity? Can a writer inhabit multiple linguistic worlds? Through close readings and archival research, Translating the Self demonstrates how self-translation offers a unique window into the formation of modern Jewish subjectivity and the ongoing negotiation between literary creativity and national belonging.