Autorenbild.
10 Werke 80 Mitglieder 3 Rezensionen

Über den Autor

Emil Draitser is Professor of Russian at Hunter College of the City University of New York.

Beinhaltet die Namen: Emil A. Draitser, Ėmil' Dreĭt͡ser

Werke von Emil Draitser

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Wissenswertes

Gebräuchlichste Namensform
Emil Draitser
Rechtmäßiger Name
Emil Draitser
Geburtstag
1937
Nationalität
Soviet Union (birth)
USA (1974)
Land (für Karte)
Ukraine
Geburtsort
Odesa, Ukraine (as Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union)
Wohnorte
Odesa, Ukraine (as Odessa, Ukraine SSR, Soviet Union)
Kyiv, Ukraine (as Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union)
Los Angeles, California, USA (1975)
New Jersey, USA
Ausbildung
Odessa Polytechnic Institute (1960)
Moscow School of Journalism
UCLA (Ph.D.) (Russian Literature) (1983)
Berufe
scholar
essayist
novelist and short story writer
Professor of Russian
Organisationen
Hunter College (New York City|1986)
Preise und Auszeichnungen
A three-time recipient of prestigious fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, he has been awarded residencies at the Vermont Arts Studios, Woodstock Art Colony, and Banff Center for the Arts in Canada.
Kurzbiographie
Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Emil Draitser has published both fiction and nonfiction since 1964. His work appeared in leading Soviet journals (Youth, Literary Gazette, and Crocodile) under his pen name "Emil Abramov." He began his writing career as a freelancer contributing satirical articles for Soviet newspapers and magazines. Eventually, he was blacklisted for criticizing an important official, prompting him to leave for the United States.

He immigrated to Los Angeles, where he earned a Ph.D. in Russian literature from UCLA. In 1986, he took a job at Hunter College in New York City, where he continues to teach. Besides twelve books of artistic and scholarly prose, Emil Draitser's essays and short stories have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, North American Review, Prism International, and many other American and Canadian periodicals. His fiction has also appeared in Russian, Polish, and Israeli journals.

Emil Draitser has given numerous public lectures and book talks at universities and cultural centers in the United States, Canada, UK, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.

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Great book! Fills in lots of gaps about the period between the Russian revolution and WWII. Great biography of very clever spy. Dmitri was a believer who had to learn the true nature of the Soviet Communism the hard way.
 
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ikeman100 | 1 weitere Rezension | Dec 15, 2020 |
Exploring the Damaged Psyche

In this part memoir, part religious autobiography, Emil Draitser explores the psychological effects of generations of antisemitism growing up Jewish in postwar Russia and the Ukraine.

The book is less about anything Stalin did, and more about the sociological factors behind why he and other Jews like Draitser grew up feeling inferior to their Russian peers. The title of the book "Shush!" refers to his mother's constant reminder to be quiet, to stop speaking Yiddish, for fear of being punished. Draitser reminds us that the effects of antisemitism stretch beyond the Holocaust, that the 'damaged psyche' was generational and caused Jews to be inconspicuous, losing their history, culture, and identity.

The book is written as a series of stories, so it is less autobiographical and more memorial. Very cleverly, Draitser is very philosophical yet not overtly so. For example, he explores the social construction of language and race through stories about being made fun of in school for his ethnic name. Or his adoration for Russian girls, anything but Jewish as a way of protesting against dividing people according to the principle of religion and race.

I said the book is part religious autobiography because throughout the stories, you feel Draitser's connection with Judaism. Growing up, he learns Yiddish, partakes in the major rituals of Bar Mitzvah, celebrations like Yom Kippur and Passover. There are discussions of theology with his Mother and other relatives about the Talmud. Though I would not necessarily characterize Draitser as a devout Jew, or Hasidic, he certainly is Jewish both culturally and spiritually. Being Jewish is an important part of his identity, one that was purposely suppressed as a result of his environment.

Taken as a whole, Draitser reminds us that structural violence can be just as destructive as physical violence. Draitser himself was not a victim of the Holocaust, or the pogroms of the nineteenth century. However, the result of the institutional racism such as segregation causes children to grow up with damaged psyches. They grow up with their "heads down and hunched under their shoulders."

This is a very well-intentioned and intelligent memoir. It deals with some of the most complex social and philosophical issues in a very colloquial way, through these stories. I can easily see this book used in an undergrad course in either Jewish studies or even postwar Europe.
… (mehr)
 
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bruchu | Dec 4, 2008 |
We are sponsoring his lecture on wednesday may 12 at the Library of Congress, please come. Madison Building, Montpelier room. noon
 
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ErikaHope | 1 weitere Rezension | Sep 9, 2013 |

Statistikseite

Werke
10
Mitglieder
80
Beliebtheit
#224,854
Bewertung
4.1
Rezensionen
3
ISBNs
20
Sprachen
2

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