2: Text excerpt, Kathryn Hellerstein’s "A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987," 2014.

2: Text excerpt, Kathryn Hellerstein’s "A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987," 2014.

From resource kit: Celia Dropkin’s “Adam”

Through her book, A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987, Kathryn Hellerstein engages women poets, considering their participation in the creation of modern Yiddish literary traditions. Hellerstein provides a translation of the 1935 version of "Odem" in the chapter "The Art of Sex: Celia Dropkin and Anna Margolin," and offers critical analysis of the poem.

Suggested Activity: Invite students to read the scholarly excerpt. Ask students: what are Hellerstein's primary arguments and insights in this section of text? Revisit together the poem in resource 1. Ask the students about Hellerstein’s writing: do you agree with Hellerstein's readings and conclusions? Do you agree with this interpretation of how space functions symbolically in the poem? What other interpretations might be possible? 

Source: Kathryn Hellerstein, A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987 (Stanford University Press, 2014), 255. Copyright (c) 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University. All rights reserved. With the permission of Stanford University Press, www.sup.org.