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Call It English identifies the distinctive voice of Jewish American literature by recovering the multilingual Jewish culture that Jews brought to the United States in their creative encounter with English. In transnational readings of works from the late-nineteenth century to the present by both immigrant and postimmigrant generations, Hana Wirth-Nesher traces the evolution of Yiddish and Hebrew in modern Jewish American prose writing through dialect and accent, cross-cultural translations, and bilingual wordplay. Call It English tells a story of preoccupation with pronunciation, diction, translation, the figurality of Hebrew letters, and the linguistic dimension of home and exile in a culture constituted of sacred, secular, familial, and ancestral languages. Through readings of works by Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, Henry Roth, Delmore Schwartz, Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Philip Roth, Aryeh Lev Stollman, and other writers, it demonstrates how inventive literary strategies are sites of loss and gain, evasion and invention. The first part of the book examines immigrant writing that enacts the drama of acquiring and relinquishing language in an America marked by language debates, local color writing, and nativism. The second part addresses multilingual writing by native-born authors in response to Jewish America's postwar social transformation and to the Holocaust. A profound and eloquently written exploration of bilingual aesthetics and cross-cultural translation, Call It English resounds also with pertinence to other minority and ethnic literatures in the United States.

American literature --- Bilingualism --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature. --- Jews in literature. --- Jews --- Judaism and literature --- Language and languages in literature. --- Multilingualism --- Jewish authors --- History and criticism. --- Intellectual life. --- Languages. --- United States --- Literatures --- History and criticism --- Holocaust [Jewish ] (1939-1945) in literature --- Intellectual life --- Languages --- Cahan, Abraham --- Criticism and interpretation --- Schwartz, Delmore --- Paley, Grace --- Malamud, Bernard --- Antin, Mary --- Roth, Henry --- Bellow, Saul --- Ozick, Cynthia --- Roth, Philip --- Stollman, Aryeh Lev --- Plurilingualism --- Polyglottism --- Language and languages --- Hebrews --- Israelites --- Jewish people --- Jewry --- Judaic people --- Judaists --- Ethnology --- Religious adherents --- Semites --- Judaism --- ABŞ --- ABSh --- Ameerika Ühendriigid --- America (Republic) --- Amerika Birlăshmish Shtatlary --- Amerika Birlăşmi Ştatları --- Amerika Birlăşmiş Ştatları --- Amerika ka Kelenyalen Jamanaw --- Amerika Qūrama Shtattary --- Amerika Qŭshma Shtatlari --- Amerika Qushma Shtattary --- Amerika (Republic) --- Amerikai Egyesült Államok --- Amerikanʹ Veĭtʹsėndi︠a︡vks Shtattnė --- Amerikări Pĕrleshu̇llĕ Shtatsem --- Amerikas Forenede Stater --- Amerikayi Miatsʻyal Nahangner --- Ameriketako Estatu Batuak --- Amirika Carékat --- AQSh --- Ar. ha-B. --- Arhab --- Artsot ha-Berit --- Artzois Ha'bris --- Bí-kok --- Ē.P.A. --- EE.UU. --- Egyesült Államok --- ĒPA --- Estados Unidos --- Estados Unidos da América do Norte --- Estados Unidos de América --- Estaos Xuníos --- Estaos Xuníos d'América --- Estatos Unitos --- Estatos Unitos d'America --- Estats Units d'Amèrica --- Ètats-Unis d'Amèrica --- États-Unis d'Amérique --- Fareyniḳṭe Shṭaṭn --- Feriene Steaten --- Feriene Steaten fan Amearika --- Forente stater --- FS --- Hēnomenai Politeiai Amerikēs --- Hēnōmenes Politeies tēs Amerikēs --- Hiwsisayin Amerikayi Miatsʻeal Tērutʻiwnkʻ --- Istadus Unidus --- Jungtinės Amerikos valstybės --- Mei guo --- Mei-kuo --- Meiguo --- Mî-koet --- Miatsʻyal Nahangner --- Miguk --- Na Stàitean Aonaichte --- NSA --- S.U.A. --- SAD --- Saharat ʻAmērikā --- SASht --- Severo-Amerikanskie Shtaty --- Severo-Amerikanskie Soedinennye Shtaty --- Si︠e︡vero-Amerikanskīe Soedinennye Shtaty --- Sjedinjene Američke Države --- Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki --- Soedinennye Shtaty Severnoĭ Ameriki --- Soedinennye Shtaty Si︠e︡vernoĭ Ameriki --- Spojené obce severoamerické --- Spojené staty americké --- SShA --- Stadoù-Unanet Amerika --- Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá --- Stany Zjednoczone --- Stati Uniti --- Stati Uniti d'America --- Stâts Unîts --- Stâts Unîts di Americhe --- Steatyn Unnaneysit --- Steatyn Unnaneysit America --- SUA (Stati Uniti d'America) --- Sŭedineni amerikanski shtati --- Sŭedinenite shtati --- Tetã peteĩ reko Amérikagua --- U.S. --- U.S.A. --- United States of America --- Unol Daleithiau --- Unol Daleithiau America --- Unuiĝintaj Ŝtatoj de Ameriko --- US --- USA --- Usono --- Vaeinigte Staatn --- Vaeinigte Staatn vo Amerika --- Vereinigte Staaten --- Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika --- Verenigde State van Amerika --- Verenigde Staten --- VS --- VSA --- Wááshindoon Bikéyah Ałhidadiidzooígíí --- Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah --- Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amirīkīyah --- Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah --- Yhdysvallat --- Yunaeted Stet --- Yunaeted Stet blong Amerika --- ZDA --- Združene države Amerike --- Zʹi︠e︡dnani Derz︠h︡avy Ameryky --- Zjadnośone staty Ameriki --- Zluchanyi︠a︡ Shtaty Ameryki --- Zlucheni Derz︠h︡avy --- ZSA --- Η.Π.Α. --- Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες της Αμερικής --- Америка (Republic) --- Американь Вейтьсэндявкс Штаттнэ --- Америкӑри Пӗрлешӳллӗ Штатсем --- САЩ --- Съединените щати --- Злучаныя Штаты Амерыкі --- ولايات المتحدة --- ولايات المتّحدة الأمريكيّة --- ولايات المتحدة الامريكية --- 미국 --- États-Unis --- É.-U. --- ÉU --- Abraham Cahan. --- Alfred Kazin. --- Allen Ginsberg. --- American Pastoral. --- Angels in America (miniseries). --- Anne Frank. --- Anti-Zionism. --- Apostrophe. --- Bar and Bat Mitzvah. --- Bartleby, the Scrivener. --- Bernstein. --- Bildungsroman. --- Blood libel. --- Call It Sleep. --- Chaim Grade. --- Charles Reznikoff. --- Conversion to Judaism. --- Cynthia Ozick. --- Dan Miron. --- Delmore Schwartz. --- Diaspora Jew (stereotype). --- Emma Lazarus. --- English poetry. --- Geoffrey Hartman. --- Gershom Scholem. --- Gilded Age. --- Gimpel the Fool. --- God Knows (novel). --- Grace Paley. --- Haggadah. --- Hamlin Garland. --- Hebrew school. --- Henry Louis Gates Jr. --- Hineni. --- His Family. --- Holocaust victims. --- In Parenthesis. --- Isaac Bashevis Singer. --- James Russell Lowell. --- Jargon. --- Jeremiad. --- Jewish American literature. --- Jewish Publication Society. --- Jewish culture. --- Jewish mysticism. --- Jews. --- Jo Sinclair. --- Joseph Conrad. --- Joseph Perl. --- Judaism. --- Kabbalah. --- Karl Shapiro. --- Leslie Fiedler. --- Literary modernism. --- Lore Segal. --- Lycidas. --- Mark Twain. --- Mary Antin. --- Matzo. --- Maus. --- Meister Eckhart. --- Mezuzah. --- Mintz. --- Orthodox Judaism. --- Otto Weininger. --- Pale of Settlement. --- Parody. --- Paul Celan. --- Poetry. --- Portnoy's Complaint. --- Pun. --- Purim. --- Ralph Waldo Emerson. --- Rebbetzin. --- Religion. --- Romanticism. --- Ruth Wisse. --- S. Ansky. --- Sadducees. --- Saul Bellow. --- Schnorrer. --- Scholem. --- Shekhina (book). --- Shlomo. --- Stereotypes of Jews. --- Tadeusz Borowski. --- Tevye. --- The Jewbird. --- The Joys of Yiddish. --- The Other Hand. --- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. --- The Shawl (Ozick). --- Theodore Dreiser. --- Uncle Tom. --- Wai Chee Dimock. --- Writing. --- Yeshiva. --- Yiddish. --- Yinglish. --- Zionism.