«Scorned My Nation»: A Comparison of Translations of "The Merchant of Venice into German, Hebrew, and Yiddish (Comparative Cultures and Literatures) - Hardcover

Abend-David, Dror

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820457981 ISBN 13: 9780820457987

Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers, 2003

Synopsis

In this book, the German history of The Merchant of Venice highlights the Central European detour that Shakespearean reception underwent in Hebrew and Yiddish. Such a detour, with its various discomforts, is used to penetrate a current historical and political historiography, rendering Shylock a character that remembers various languages and locations, as well as multiple alternatives for political self-definition. This complex Shakespearean character speaks in many voices and for various purposes and is the only character that can provide the missing link between two contradictory Jewish stereotypes – a persecuted and victimized underling and a merciless and violent plaintive, holding out his knife to draw blood.

About this title

About the Author:

The Author: Dror Abend-David graduated from New York University with a Ph.D. in comparative literature in 2001. He is currently Assistant Professor at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, and has published academic articles, translations, poetry, and short stories in various magazines and collections.

Review:

«Just as Biblical commentary interacts and intertwines with Biblical tales, so do translations and adaptations extend, complement, and critique Shakespeare’s plays, as well as shape what those texts mean in other cultures. Dror Abend-David has applied this midrashic and Derridean principle to show how German, Hebrew, and Yiddish versions of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ enlist Shakespeare’s play into such nation-building projects as German nationalism, Zionism, and Yiddish culture as the expression of a deterritorialized people. ‘Scorned My Nation’ is an important contribution to studies of translation and adaptation, to Shakespeare studies, and to the histories of the three literary and theatrical traditions it explores.» (Michael Shapiro, Professor of English and Director of the Sheldon and Anita Drobny Interdisciplinary Program for the Study of Jewish Culture and Society, University of Illinois)

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0820457981
• ISBN 13: 9780820457987
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 247