The Worlds of I.B.Singer: Translation, Feuilleton, Life-Writing

This project examines how the Yiddish writer Yitskhok Bashevis (1902-1991) created English versions of his works under the name Isaac Bashevis Singer, which subsequently gained worldwide translation. I explore the nature of Singer’s literary worlds by combining four theoretical fields. This synthesis is the primary contribution to this study of Singer’s work, using innovative methodologies in the fields of world literature, translation, feuilleton and life-writing.

It breaks new ground by delineating Singer’s works from the Yiddish press that were never translated or critically assessed. Through mapping and close readings of these untranslated works, I demonstrate how they can be employed to provide new innovative perspectives on Singer’s work and biography.

By revising Franco Moretti’s theories regarding the unequal relationship between literary center and periphery, I utilize the term ‘non-universal global’ (Levi and Schachter, 2017) to analyze Singer’s Yiddish and English work. The contrast between the cosmopolitan and the minority status highlights the duality of Singer’s work as both universal and indigenous.

Singer took advantage of the disintegration of the Western literary network of center and periphery resulting from the immigrant, minority, and postcolonial trends that emerged following World War II. These created new paradigms for Singer’s world literature, based on a more fluid exchange of works in their original languages and translation.