Community, Literature and Translation. The case of Jewish Canadian literature in English

MARÍA LAURA SPOTURNO

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Congreso; Terceras Jornadas Internacionales de Lengua Inglesa y de Literatura en Lengua Inglesa; 2013

Universidad del Salvador

The Jewish community in Canada has been recognized as an essential component of the mosaic constituting Canada?s multicultural identity. In the field of literature, the production of Jewish Canadian writers and poets is noticeably distinct, placing the emphasis on the communal dimension, and showing the need to translate one?s experience for the other (Mayne 1985). This paper has two main goals: to introduce Shulamis Yelin (1913-2002) as a minority writer of multicultural background and to explore the construction of linguistic and cultural identity in her collection of semi-autobiographical stories Shulamis. Stories from a Montreal Childhood ([1983] 1993). The stories present Canada?s avowed spirit of respect and equitable treatment for all cultures and identities while showing some of the difficulties immigrants had to face and the dangers of acculturation. In order to elaborate on the subject of identity, especial attention will be drawn to the story ?I Find My Jewish Name,? which approaches the conflict of defining one?s identity in different milieus. It will be argued that this identity conflict can be considered a fictionalized version of Yelin?s own struggle to translate herself in order to find a literary voice of her own. Note: An earlier version this presentation was submitted to a Canadian Studies journal