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[Harriet Murav]

Emily Tall raises a question about inclusivity that has profound historical
implications.  In the early and mid-nineteenth century, Russian-Jewish
promoters of the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment movement, wrote in
Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish. They saw themselves as "Russians of Mosaic
faith." Their Russian-language works are little known, and their Hebrew and
Yiddish works are usually separated out from the 19th century Russian
literary tradition.  Our colleagues in German studies have debated whether
Moses Mendelsohn's Hebrew works should be taught in German literature
courses.  German departments in the US and Germany teach Yiddish and Hebrew
authors. Instead of separating out the " minorities", why not deal with the
linguistic and cultural heteroglossia of Russia in a more complex and
historically accurate way?


Harriet Murav
Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
   email: hlmurav at ucdavis.edu
Office Phone: (916) 752-1971