"Kafka at the Theatre: On Joseph Lateiner’s ‘Der Meshumad’."

• In Event: "Negotiating Indentity: Yiddish Theatre in Interwar Europe."

Abstract

The Yiddish popular theatre was attracted to staging figures that have distanced themselves from Jewish tradition, heroines that, willingly or otherwise, converted to Christianity and other forms of assimilated Jews. This paper delves into the construction of Jewish modern identity in Joseph Lateiner's drama "Der Meshumad." Focusing on Franz Kafka's 1911 diary review of Lateiner's play, this paper talk aims to elucidate the early Yiddish theatre's emphasis on the liminal figure of the convert, as a reflection of modern Jewish dynamics of assimilation and acculturation, and the remaking of the Jewish self by way of linguistic and gestural transformations. Through an analysis of Kafka's reflections on the bodily and aural shaping of Lateiner’s drama, and on portrayal of the dramatic character of the convert, the talk will illuminate the intricacies of Jewish double identity formation within the realm of popular Yiddish dramatic performance.

Author

• Ruthie Abeliovich, Tel Aviv University