Philanthropic classism: Americanization as a controversial rite of passage in Anzia Yezirska's fiction
At the turn of the nineteenth century, eastern European Jewish families migrated to America aspiring to fulfil the discourses of upward mobility and religious tolerance widely spread throughout their Russian villages. The Polish-born American writer Anzia Yezierska offers unique sketches of what bec...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/101229 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/101229 https://doi.org/10.12795/REN.2019.i23.04 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | New Woman Anzia Yezierska Americanization Jewish Hybrid identity Nueva Mujer Americanización Judía Identidad híbrida |
| Sumario: | At the turn of the nineteenth century, eastern European Jewish families migrated to America aspiring to fulfil the discourses of upward mobility and religious tolerance widely spread throughout their Russian villages. The Polish-born American writer Anzia Yezierska offers unique sketches of what became one of the most controversial experiences of such a journey: the cultural clash between the already Americanized German Jewish elite and the newly-arrived Russian Jewish women. To gain access to the public space, Yezierska’s characters seek social acknowledgement by going through a rite of passage surveilled by German Jewish ladies, who had formerly arrived in the United States. Although the process of Americanization becomes apparently attainable through American philanthropic programs and charity institutions, Yezierska shows how their Americanizing strategies and the models of America n femininity advertised in the period eventually failed to succeed. By developing a hybrid identity, Russian Jewish characters manage to legitimate their cultural differences inside the urban public spaces and beyond the Lower East Side context. |
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