The Case of Barcelona

The year’s work in stylistics 2021

“…Also analysing the interaction between language, culture, politics and identity, Golda van der Meer (Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), supervisors Marisa Siguan Boehmer and Anita Norich) investigated the use of minority languages in poetry (van der Meer, 2021). Arguing that poetry can be used as a political act to preserve minority languages, van der Meer explored Yiddish poetry, specifically the avant-garde poetic movement Inzikh, which was founded during the interwar period in New York.…”

“…Arguing that poetry can be used as a political act to preserve minority languages, van der Meer explored Yiddish poetry, specifically the avant-garde poetic movement Inzikh, which was founded during the interwar period in New York. van der Meer argues that after WWII, Yiddish was forced to ‘move from existing in a national diasporic space to a poetic space’ (van der Meer, 2021: 36) which resulted in it becoming increasingly considered a liderloshn (or poetic language), rather than a mamelsohn (or mother language). van der Meer’s research is fascinating and will be of interest to stylisticians interested in translation, identity and linguistic resistance as well as avant-garde poetry.…”