Humor and Social commentary in Jewish Literature

"I've always thought baseball bats send a much stronger message than satire."
- Woody Allen's character in Manhattan

Using this binaristic lens to analyze Jewish--mostly Yiddish-- literature, we can see how the angles play out. As annoying, I think, as comparison studies are between Bashevis and I.J., the two brothers encapsulate this split: the older was a Naturalist, rather devoid of humor, who took the baseball bat approach; the younger, though he focused more on individuals and their interiors, traced his influences from Thomas Mann's satire.

With the mention of the German Nobel laureate, whom Bashevis translated, it's important to note his split from what had been classic European novel writing. Namely, satire and a move from Naturalism to Modernism. I.J., though born ten years before his brother, belongs in the Zola, Flaubert, and perhaps Dostoevsky, camp; Mann and Bashevis belong in a "later" one.

Dates are almost unimportant in Jewish literature, as the tradition experienced rapid growth through successive literary forms and eras. Thomas Mann was born in 1875; I.J. in '83; Bashevis in 1902. What Bashevis's Modernist era represents is a return to the comedy and social commentary of the first modern Yiddish writers, Mendele and Sholem Aleichem, with the added bonuses of a German master, sexual deviancy, catastrophe, and kabbalistic mystery.

In 1934, Benjamin writes that the technique of a work can be either progressive or regressive; that is, whether or not--this is the Marxist part-- the work contributes to the furthering of political/historical goals. The advent of Modernism, as a progression from realism and naturalism, gave Bashevis an edge on his brother, and enabled him to capture ideas or feelings the way his brother could not due to the latter's position in literary history.

If there is a Marxist base for Bashevis's literary output--i.e. economic production determining his consciousness--it is, in fact, the destruction of industry, rather than its progression, which spurred the Yiddish Nobel laureate.