https://doi.org/10.31261/IR.2023.10.07
The text reviews Marat Grinberg’s book The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf. Jewish Culture and Identity Between the Lines. The review’s author recalls Grinberg’s research goals oriented towards presenting the identity of Soviet Jews – its existence and dynamic development over the years. For Grinberg, the key to revealing the cultural awareness of Soviet Jews is their home libraries. The author of The Jewish Bookshelf… studies the relationship between the construction of this minority’s identity and the books they have read, examined and popularized towards the Jewish readers. The review’s author analyzes the various interpretation tactics used by Grinberg, who strongly relies on the Leo Strauss’ proposition of “writing and reading between the lines”. Showing its effects, the researches demonstrates that in the cultural circle of the times of the USSR it was necessary to smuggle knowledge about Jewishness in the form of allusions, hints, hidden cultural and historical contexts. As Grinberg’s studies show, passing the knowledge about the Jewishness between Soviet Jews with using this technique was fortunate. Search for identity in this group has a particularly strong meaning, so the readers not renounce their cultural belonging.
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No. 1(10) (2023)
Published: 2023-06-18
10.31261/IR
English
Język Polski