Literature as a Medium for Memory : The Universe of Sholem Asch’s Novels

Abstract

The book focuses on the presentation of some basic figures of memory that are present in the twenty-six novels by the Yiddish writer Sholem Asch. This study shows how memory is crystallized in the experience of surrounding landscapes and nature, and particularly in the reality shaped by man: towns and cities, family, religion, festivities and everyday life, the world of dreams and ideas as well as the biblical and historical events to which the author refers. Asch tried to preserve the common memory as perceived by Jews but since the target readers of his works were both Jews and Christians, his work has had an impact on both the collective memory of his own people and the treasury of universal human memory.