Jan Schwarz
Office: Foster 511
Email: schwarzj@uchicago.edu
Department of Germanic Studies: Senior Lecturer in Yiddish
Education:
1997: Columbia University, Ph.D., Department of German
1983: University of Copenhagen, Cand.Mag. Scandinavian Philology
1976: University of Copenhagen, B.A., Comparative Literature
Background:
I started my graduate work in Comparative Literature and European Literature at the University of Copenhagen. From there I had moved on to Yiddish Studies, or Jewish Studies, and I came to the United States and did my Ph.D. in Yiddish Literature at Columbia. And it was interesting, I'm very interested in European and American literature in general and that is how I started out. I then came to Jewish Studies later on. The way I kind of approach Jewish literature is from a comparative interdiscipline, and I always see Jewish literature in the context of this broader issue of European literature, American literature, and also Israeli literature.
How is the interdisciplinary study within the Committee beneficial:
I think what is so important for Jewish Studies, not only at this university, but in general is the interdisciplinary, comparative aspect of this committee. Beause we have scholars from a variety of disciplines, and that is what makes it such an exciting field. You can talk to people in history, anthropology, and philosophy; religious studies and literature- come to different topics with different disciplinary backgrounds and that makes for a very exciting environment. I think that is really the most important thing. I wouldn't even call it a field, I would call it an area of study. And I think my background is really... well that is my background. I always try to work in various contexts, disciplinary contexts, and try to combine and make them enrich each other from different perspectives and issues.
What type of student would benefit working with you:
All kinds of students. I teach courses, undergrad courses, that are geared towards people with almost no knowledge of Yiddish or Jewish literature or Jewish culture. Then I teach graduate seminars for more advanced students who have already taken courses in different fields. So I think it is important to have the whole, from the basic to the more advanced. I think all kinds of students would benefit from this.
Where would their interests be:
I teach two separate things: Yiddish language courses from beginners to advance. Part of that is that I conduct conversation groups on a regular basis. It is not happening this quarter, but it will start up again in the winter quarter where we meet once a week with more advanced students, faculty, and other interested people; and converse in Yiddish. Other important things are courses about Jewish Literature and Jewish Culture. There I am currently teaching a course on the great Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem. It is titled Classic Yiddish Fiction: Sholem Aleichem and the Diasporic Imagination. I have taught courses in Jewish autobiography. In the winter of 2007 I am going to teach courses in Jewish American literature after 1945. That will include literary texts by Yiddish and Jewish Writers in English and I am planning a couple of courses next year; one on Isaac Bashevis Singer, who is like the great connecting link between the Yiddish world and a broader American world. And then I am also working on a course for speakers or readers of German who are interested in learning, and basically develop reading efficiency. So that will be particular--it will be geared to that particular group.
Could you say more about autobiography:
Well autobiography is my specialty. I published a book about autobiography- Imagining Lives: Autobiographical Fiction of Yiddish Writers last year. It is something I started very thoroughly and the great thing about autobiography, Jewish autobiography, is that it does encompass a lot of interdisciplinary approaches. You can look at autobiography from a purely literary point of view, and a historical point of view, psychological, and anthropological. There are a lot of interesting intersections between these disciplines in autobiography. And that is really what I emphasis in my work on Jewish autobiography. And it is also a very interesting topic for a graduate seminar or even an undergraduate course because a lot of these works are very compelling and enables you to open up discussions of the self, conception of the self, in Jewish culture. And like narrative and translations of different narrative, from Jewish languages and non-Jewish languages- there are a lot of different topics that are relevant to discuss Jewish autobiography. I think it is a good example of a course in Jewish studies that has a very specific Jewish angle but must also be conceptualized in a broader, general framework. You cannot talk about Jewish autobiography without talking about the key texts of the western traditions: like Rousseau's Confessions, Goethe's autobiography, and Tolstoy. These go into the discussion of the more specific Jewish concerns.
What advice would you give students who would like to work with you:
My advice is you should think about all the many options that students have at the University of Chicago. If you want to pursue a degree, masters or Ph.D. in Jewish studies there are a lot of excellent people here. You should think about how you would want to tailor your program and take advantage of all the different approaches: History, Divinity School, Jewish Thought, Hebrew, and Yiddish.
Also my advice is to think about foreign languages and what are the kinds of foreign languages you would like to study. It goes without saying that Hebrew is important, probably the most important component here. But then you can think about other languages like Yiddish, of course, which I encourage. But there are other languages as well that would be very important: German, French, Arabic, you name it. Jewish culture exists all over the world so the main languages would be very relevant.
So that is my advice. Think about how you want to take advantage of the different offerings here and the different disciplines and also think about foreign languages. What direction do you want to go.
Are you working on a book now:
I am working currently on a book, which is actually a study, that uses the last chapter of my book from last year as a point of departure. It is a study of Yiddish literature, Yiddish writers in New York after 1945. How did these writers respond to the destruction of Eastern European Jewry, and how did they continue their literary work? How did they interact with each other and how did they interact with the outside world, the broader American Jewish world, but also the broader American world? And how did they relate to the creation of the state of Israel, that changed the whole dynamic in the Jewish community in America in the late 40s? And finally how did these Yiddish writers in New York confront the decline of the number of Yiddish speakers and the different institutions of Yiddish culture in this period after 1945? So that is what I am working on now. I published a number of articles related to it and I hope that I will be able to complete it in the next couple of years.
Are there a number of Yiddish literature faculty:
I am the only one. And I am placed in the German department which is a logical choice because Yiddish is basically a Germanic language. There is also an angle between my area of expertise which is Central Eastern European Jewry and German Jewry. And I am dialoguing with the several professors at this university that specialize in German Jewry.