ENG100H1 Lecture Notes - Shtetl, Presupposition
Document Summary
As we study the literature of a particular cultural group, we must be careful not to isolate them. Anything studied in this class could also be studied under another non-jewish theme. For example, yazierska as feminist, cahan as labor activist. Situates us immediately in the world of a jewish immigrant, who is still trying to figure out what it means to be canadian jewish immigrant. Zipper is not interested as cahan in the jewish identity, here it is taken for granted. Reassurance provided in the form of what shternberg does not need. Immediacy of the info, the reassurance means shternberg felt otherwise. Immediate presupposition is that where he came from must have been the opposite. Organizing premise: nostalgia about finding a safe heaven juxtaposed with the precarious past. Nostalgia for the familiarity of the old world comes hand in hand with the hostility experienced there. Problematics of nostalgia, people miss their past, but they don"t miss everything!
