Do’ikayt and the Spaces of Politics in An-sky’s Novella In shtrom

Abstract

ABSTRACT In his novella In shtrom (In the Stream), Sh. An-sky depicts the complexities of the 1905 revolution for Jews through representation of the physical spaces of the city, especially the city park that becomes the central location for the workers' organizations. This article investigates how the novella uses representations of the “lived Jewish space” of the city park to further the cause of building a revolutionary Jewish identity grounded in Yiddish culture and the spaces and experiences of eastern Europe. I call this kind of writing “literary do'ikayt” (hereness): a literary manifestation of the Yiddishist and revolutionary politics of the period that sought to build political and cultural identity grounded in lived experience and a relationship to place, while resisting territorial nationalism as a solution to the problems of either Jews or the working classes of other nations. The article also provides historical and scholarly background on the term do'ikayt.