Joseph Sherman (essay date 1995)


Joseph Sherman (essay date 1995)

SOURCE: Sherman, Joseph. “Scrutinizing the Shtetl: I. B. Singer's ‘Tseytl un Rikl.’” Prooftexts 15, no. 2 (May 1995): 129-44.

[In the following essay, Sherman examines Singer's short story “Tseytl un Rikl” in terms of its setting in a Jewish shtetl, the narrative monologue, and the themes of sin and virtue.]

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Among the many ambivalences that vitalize Singer's work is his treatment of the shtetl. In his Nobel Lecture (1978) he lauded it as “a great experiment in peace, in self-discipline,...

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