Les objets du voyage. Albert Cohen face à la littérature yiddish

Abstract

[eng] In the following pages we aim to compare the fictional work of Albert Cohen with that of Mendelè-Moïker-Sforim, I.L. Peretz and Sholem Aleïkem, representatives of Jewish literature written in Yiddish or Hebrew. If their imaginary worlds seem easily superimposed, our analysis will focus more precisely on a few motifs linked to the theme of travel, in particular the passport and the suitcase (objects symbolizing both identity and exclusion) and the wheel (object that represents both displacement and trap). These objects, the ontological value of which we will question, undergo a process of deformation as they construct a sacred universe which is discovered much more fragile in Cohen than in Yiddish-speaking writers.