Celia Dropkin as a Translingual Writer

Max Weinreich Fellowship Lecture in East European Jewish Literature The Vladimir and Pearl Heifetz Memorial Fellowship and the Vivian Lefsky Hort Memorial Fellowship Admission: Free Registration is required. Register

Translingual author Celia Dropkin (1887-1956) wrote in three languages: Russian, Yiddish, and English. Though she produced her first literary works in Russian, she emigrated from the Russian Empire to the United States in 1912 and five years later, she began translating her Russian poems into Yiddish. It was in Yiddish that Dropkin made a name for herself as an author with a bold and original voice. Additionally, because she resided in the United States, English became increasingly important in her life as yet another language of her literary creativity. Although she is known only as a Yiddish author today, the role of Russian and English in Dropkin’s oeuvre cannot be ignored. In her literary activity, Dropkin navigated between Russian, Yiddish, and English and their corresponding cultures, challenging the literary boundaries established by national categories.

In this talk, Jakub Zygmunt will present a linguistic biography of Celia Dropkin, discuss selected translingual practices found in her work, and demonstrate what the translingual framework can tell us new about Dropkin’s work in particular and Yiddish literature in general.

About the Speaker

Jakub Zygmunt is a PhD candidate in Literary Studies at the University of Warsaw. His research project focuses on the relationship between Celia Dropkin’s oeuvre and various literary traditions, as well as strategies of translation that enabled her work to exist in different cultures. Jakub holds degrees in Jewish Studies and Law, which he pursued at the College of Inter-Area Individual Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw. He is the 2023-2024 recipient of The Vladimir and Pearl Heifetz Memorial Fellowship and the Vivian Lefsky Hort Memorial Fellowship at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.