Old Truths and New Clichés

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Published by Princeton University Press 2022

Old Truths and New Clichés

Essays by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer

Edited by: David Stromberg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691238982

Overview
Contents

About this book

From the Nobel Prize–winning writer, a new collection of literary and personal essays

Old Truths and New Clichés collects eighteen essays—most of them previously unpublished in English—by Isaac Bashevis Singer on topics that were central to his artistic vision throughout an astonishing and prolific literary career spanning more than six decades. Expanding on themes reflected in his best-known work—including the literary arts, Yiddish and Jewish life, and mysticism and philosophy—the book illuminates in new ways the rich intellectual, aesthetic, religious, and biographical background of Singer’s singular achievement as the first Yiddish-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Like a modern Montaigne, Singer studied human nature and created a body of work that contributed to a deeper understanding of the human spirit. Much of his philosophical thought was funneled into his stories. Yet these essays, which Singer himself translated into English or oversaw the translation of, present his ideas in a new way, as universal reflections on the role of the artist in modern society. The unpublished essays featured here include “Old Truths and New Clichés,” “The Kabbalah and Modern Times,” and “A Trip to the Circus.”

Old Truths and New Clichés brims with stunning archival finds that will make a significant impact on how readers understand Singer and his work. Singer’s critical essays have long been overlooked because he has been thought of almost exclusively as a storyteller. This book offers an important correction to the record by further establishing Singer as a formidable intellectual.

Author information

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903–1991) was the Nobel Prize–winning author of many novels, short story collections, memoirs, and children’s books, including Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories, The Magician of Lublin, and Enemies, A Love Story. David Stromberg, a writer, translator, and literary scholar, is editor for the Isaac Bashevis Singer Literary Trust. His books include Baddies, Idiot Love and the Elements of Intimacy, and A Short Inquiry into the End of the World.

Reviews

“Known for the demons, imps, and broken souls that populate his stories, Singer was also an often acerbic essayist whose critical analyses, once strewn throughout the Yiddish press, are unknown to most readers of English. This welcome collection of his essays offers new insights into this brilliant writer and his craft—his stark iconoclasm, his sometimes surprising attitudes toward literary interpretation, and his complexity.”—Eddy Portnoy, author of Bad Rabbi and Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press

"Sly and slightly maddening, blunt and often profound, the Singer of Old Truths and New Clichés surprises with both the generalized pronouncements of an arch individualist and the grounded insights of a staunch universalist. This too is the wonder that Singer was, and David Stromberg’s patient gathering of these sparks and shards is a gift—above all for the angle it offers onto this Jewish master’s intellectual obsessions and his refreshingly eccentric approach to Jewishness itself."—Peter Cole, author of Hymns & Qualms: New and Selected Poems and Translations

“A wonderful and important new volume, Old Truths and New Clichés is game-changing for our understanding of Isaac Bashevis Singer.”—Debra Caplan, author of Yiddish Empire

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Writers Don’t Write for the Drawer: An Introduction to the Essays of Isaac Bashevis Singer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
The Literary Arts
The Satan of Our Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
Journalism and Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Why Literary Censorship Is Harmful Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Who Needs Literature? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	32
Old Truths and New Clichés Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Storytelling and Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Literature for Children and Adults Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
Yiddish and Jewish LIFE
The Kabbalah and Modern Times Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
The Ten Commandments and Modern Critics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	90
The Spirit of Judaism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Yiddish, the Language of Exile Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Yiddish Theater Lives, Despite the Past Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Yiddish and Jewishness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Personal Writings and Philosophy
A Trip to the Circus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Why I Write As I Do: The Philosophy and Definition of a Jewish Writer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
A Personal Concept of Religion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
A Story about a Collection of Stories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	176
The Making of a First Book Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
To the True Protester Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	194
Singer the Editor: An Afterword on the Editorial Process Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227