Meir Kucinski

diaspora and yiddish literature in Brazil

Abstract

Meir Kucinski (1904-1976) was a Jewish writer of Polish origin, Brazilian immigrant, and professor of Yiddish language and literature. In this article, based on elements of the author's life and trajectory and the reading and analysis of some of his texts and stories translated into Portuguese - especially those present in the book "Imigrantes, Mascates e Doutores", organized by Rifka Berezin and Hadassa Cytrynowicz -, we intend to investigate elements of Kucinski's relationship with the environment of the "new world" where he finds himself: the community, cultural and intellectual life of the Jewish diaspora in Brazil, the reminiscences of the European past present in his literature, his life in Brazil and with the brazilians, and the option for maintaining his literary writing in Yiddish, even with the frank decline of the language, in number of writers, speakers and listeners, from the middle of the 20th century. Our proposal will involve a careful reading and analysis of short stories and other texts by the author - some of which autobiographical -, as well as a critical review of his work; seeking to situate it in its sociocultural context as well as to explore the relationship between its literature and its "source", European Yiddish literature, as well as the transformations and peculiarities that involved its contact with the Brazilian Jewish diaspora, a result of its migration.