Valerie-kristin Piehslinger

Portrayals of Urban Jewish Communities: in U.s. American and Canadian Immigrant Fiction in Selected Texts by Anzia Yezierska and Adele Wiseman Valerie-kristin Piehslinger

This text, which was awarded with a Student Award of Excellency from the English Department of the University of Vienna, analyzes the way in which urban Jewish immigrant communities are represented in Anzia Yezierska's short story collection "Hungry Hearts" and Adele Wieseman's novel "The Sacrifice". Both authors set their stories focusing on immigrant protagonists in existing Jewish communities: in New York City (Yezierska) and in Winnipeg (Wiseman). Aspects, such as religion, tradition, family ties and structures, education, work, language acquisition and use, stereotypes, community structures, the role of women within these structures, processes of acculturation etc., are taken into account in order to present a well-rounded and detailed analysis of the two authors' fictional Jewish communities, which, to some extent, reflect the authors' own experiences.