3.0

Average Course Rating

The two most distinctive forms of Jewish urban settlement in Europe were the ghetto and the shtetl. Shtetls were small market towns in eastern Europe with large Jewish populations; in western European cities that restricted Jewish residence, ghettos were the small neighborhoods where Jews were permitted to live. Both arose in the 16th century - shtetls in Polish lands, while the first ghetto was in Venice - but their development took very different paths in the modern period. With industrialization, urbanization, and mass migration transforming Jewish life in the 19th century, shtetls became ubiquitous elements of Jewish art and literature as objects of nostalgia and metaphors for a range of ideas about Jewish identity and history. Ghettos, after disappearing in the 19th century, were revived by the Nazis as an integral part of their genocide of Europe's Jews. This course will survey shtetls and ghettos in history and culture, considering their role in antisemitic policy and fantasy as well as in literary and artistic representations of Jewish culture, identity, and social autonomy. Our focus will be on literature (including novels, travelogues, and journalism) and art from the 19th century to the present. All readings in English.