Call It English: The Languages of Jewish American Literature

The phrase "Call It English" is a contemporary literary descriptor, not an ancient term with a specific etymological root. It emerged in academic discourse around the late 20th and early 21st centuries to characterize a distinct mode of expression within Jewish American literature, signifying a language that is English yet profoundly shaped by other linguistic inheritances.

Call It English: The Languages of Jewish American Literature is a 2006 monograph by American-Israeli literary scholar Hana Wirth-Nesher, Professor of English and American Studies at Tel Aviv University. Wirth-Nesher investigates how Jewish American writers from the late nineteenth century to the present have incorporated multilingual elements—particularly Hebrew, Yiddish, and Aramaic—into their English-language works. Through analysis of authors including Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, Henry Roth, Saul...

The phrase "Call It English" offers a nuanced lens through which to appreciate the intricate linguistic choreography of Jewish American literature. It moves beyond a simple notion of assimilation to recognize a dynamic process of creative translation, where the bedrock of English becomes a fertile ground for the planting of Yiddish cadences, Hebrew allusions, and Aramaic echoes. This is not merely a matter of incorporating foreign words, but of allowing the very syntax and spirit of ancestral languages to inform the rhythm and texture of the prose.

Mircea Eliade, in his explorations of the sacred and the profane, often highlighted how archaic languages carry within them a unique spiritual charge, a resonance with foundational myths and cosmologies. Similarly, the languages of Jewish heritage, embedded in prayer, scripture, and daily life, carry a distinct worldview. When these are interwoven with English, a new linguistic entity emerges, one that speaks with a double consciousness, as W.E.B. Du Bois might have described it, but articulated through the very fabric of language.

This phenomenon is akin to the alchemical transmutation of metals, where base elements are transformed into something more precious. The English language, in the hands of these writers, is not diminished but amplified, gaining depth and complexity from its multilingual engagements. It reflects a sophisticated understanding of identity as fluid and composite, a mosaic rather than a monolith. The reader encounters a literature that is both familiar and profoundly other, inviting a deeper engagement with the cultural currents that have shaped American experience. The act of "calling it English" is an act of claiming and redefinition, asserting that the American literary landscape is expansive enough to encompass such rich linguistic hybridity. It suggests that the most vital forms of expression often arise at the confluence of traditions, where the boundaries of one language become the launching pad for the creation of another.

RELATED_TERMS: Code-switching, Linguistic hybridity, Cultural assimilation, Diaspora literature, Multilingualism, Palimpsest, Syncretism