The Washwoman

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The Washwoman

Author’s biography
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Author(1904–1991)

Singer gave from Young on July 14, 1904 as his date of birth, possibly to avoid military service that was on Novemeber 21 of 1902. And his death was on Julio 24 of 1991.

He was son and grandson of rabbins. He grew up in the Jewish quarter of Warsaw. Singer also spent several years in Biłgoraj, a town full of Jewish tradition, where his maternal grandfather was a rabbi. He received an education of the Jewish tradition and the study of the texts in Hebrew and Aramaic.

He began to write stories when everyone of his family told stories as the same as the young man. Although he was being groomed to become a Hasidic rabbi like his father, Singer followed in his older brother's footsteps instead expressing a preference to become a writer rather than a religious leader as his family´s fluence wanted.

Also in most of his works is the environment in the theme and the life of the Jews of Poland that Singer discribes and judges alternating tenderness and criticism, sometimes biting. His prose is very elaborate, often includes strange or comical details and it is appreciated in his a costant of sentimentality and sensuality.

Historical background

According with the history, when he received the Nobel Prize, 1978; he was recognized as the only author who would be awarded for the creation of a remarkable literary work in Yiddish language. Therefore, the language that had sustained that activity and through which they communicated in Europe was now added to the group of "Endangered Languages" the Yiddish.
 
Although his success in journalism was Singer's passion for literature would not be suppressed. He started writing short stories on the side. In 1925 his family always talk about spirits that took possession of life humans or demons. That is the reason of Singer's first novel is Satan in Goray, was published. His characters, like his creator, are discussed between the sacred and the profane. Demons, associated with passions and sensuality, insistently populate their world of fiction, reflecting their perception of the surrounding reality and their own, torn, inner life.

Perhaps the charm of his work  at least in part, is the happy combination between his ancestral Jewish roots and a modernist style, a consequence of contemporary European influences as the background of them, which gave him universal significance for his life and his work.


Expectations/Predictions about the text


I expect of this story the description of someone that is doing something new or different in this case of a woman. I think there is something special or unusual that the author express about someone who is original. And the word wash in the title could be about it is clean or she is making an action for that.

Analysis or Connection between literary work and historical background

I think the connection that is between the author and the movement will be the realism, because Issac describes a old woman that is making an natural and usual action that is wash, and in this clothes with laundry. The importance of this connection is that sometimes we live this situation with our neighbors, families and friends. We know people that they does not care what happens with their parents, even if they are old.

As Singer´s background, he could be inspired in someone that he met or knew in order to write this short story. And the Washwoman is one of the inspirations of this author.



Literary movement

The literature in Yiddish is the written in Yiddish, the language of the Askenazíes Jews, related to the medieval German. It is often considered that literature in Yiddish has had three stages: ancient Yídica literature; Hasidic and Haskalah Literature; and modern Yídica Literature.

I selected this literary movement of this short story beaucse this literature can be combine with naturalism and realis because he started to write in his maternal language and that is why the readers thouhgt that is a different and unusal way to express literature with his orignal language.

Realism- modernism
I think the author represent the social life and the reality with the human life. He described and provided with a natural vocabulary that is understandable for whoever. However he wrote about spirits and souls in sorrow and that is a modern thinking about the reincarnation but he knew that God would not send souls to the world for once, and also it connects the realism as a movement.

We can say that these movements describe Issac Singer´s life with the literature, because everything that he has written is influenced because of his own life.
 

Country: Poland, Yiddish (Judeo-German)

Genre / Type: Short story


Did you confirm your predictions? Were they correct? Were they wrong? How? Why?


Yes I confirmed some of my predictions about the story, the washwoman is an original woman, she was doing something different with the bundles, the story teach us a strong woman who always done the task that she had undertaken until she passed away. I did not have the prediction about her faithful that she had with a family, they really matter the old woman.

Another prediction that was wrong is the age of the woman, I did not think that was going to be a old woman with more than seventy years old. I imagined that was a woman of thirty or forty yeats old

References
Biography.com E.. (April, 2014). Isaac Bashevis Singer Biography.com. 2014, de A&E Television Networks Sitio web: https://www.biography.com/people/isaac-bashevis-singer-9484987

Gale Casajús, E.. (2013). Relatos de I.B. Singer. 2013, de I.E.S. "RÍO ARBA" Sitio web: http://www.literaturaeuropea.es/obras/cuentos-de-singer/

For Educational Purposes Only. (June 27, 2008 ). The Washwoman by Isaac Bashevis Singer. 2006, Sitio web: http://shortstorymasterpieces.altervista.org/singerwashwoman.html

Wikipedia. (26 August 2017). Yiddish Literature. 2017, de The free encyclopedia (Wikipedia Project) Sitio web: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_literature