City of Rogues and Schnorrers

Russia's Jews and the Myth of Old Odessa

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Jewish, Nonfiction, History, Asian, Russia
Cover of the book City of Rogues and Schnorrers by Jarrod Tanny, Indiana University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jarrod Tanny ISBN: 9780253001382
Publisher: Indiana University Press Publication: November 14, 2011
Imprint: Indiana University Press Language: English
Author: Jarrod Tanny
ISBN: 9780253001382
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication: November 14, 2011
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Language: English

“Outstanding . . . A delightfully written work of serious scholarship.” —Jewish Book World

Old Odessa, on the Black Sea, gained notoriety as a legendary city of Jewish gangsters and swindlers, a frontier boomtown mythologized for the adventurers, criminals, and merrymakers who flocked there to seek easy wealth and lead lives of debauchery and excess. Odessa is also famed for the brand of Jewish humor brought there in the nineteenth century from the shtetls of Eastern Europe and that flourished throughout Soviet times.

From a broad historical perspective, Jarrod Tanny examines the hybrid Judeo-Russian culture that emerged in Odessa in the nineteenth century and persisted through the Soviet era and beyond. The book shows how the art of eminent Soviet-era figures such as Isaac Babel, Il’ia Ilf, Evgenii Petrov, and Leonid Utesov grew out of the Odessa Russian-Jewish culture into which they were born and which shaped their lives.

“Traces the emergence, development, and persistence of the myth of Odessa as both Garden of Eden and Gomorrah . . . A joy to read.” —Robert Weinberg, Swarthmore College

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“Outstanding . . . A delightfully written work of serious scholarship.” —Jewish Book World

Old Odessa, on the Black Sea, gained notoriety as a legendary city of Jewish gangsters and swindlers, a frontier boomtown mythologized for the adventurers, criminals, and merrymakers who flocked there to seek easy wealth and lead lives of debauchery and excess. Odessa is also famed for the brand of Jewish humor brought there in the nineteenth century from the shtetls of Eastern Europe and that flourished throughout Soviet times.

From a broad historical perspective, Jarrod Tanny examines the hybrid Judeo-Russian culture that emerged in Odessa in the nineteenth century and persisted through the Soviet era and beyond. The book shows how the art of eminent Soviet-era figures such as Isaac Babel, Il’ia Ilf, Evgenii Petrov, and Leonid Utesov grew out of the Odessa Russian-Jewish culture into which they were born and which shaped their lives.

“Traces the emergence, development, and persistence of the myth of Odessa as both Garden of Eden and Gomorrah . . . A joy to read.” —Robert Weinberg, Swarthmore College

More books from Indiana University Press

Cover of the book Saving Stalin's Imperial City by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Have the Mountains Fallen? by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book My Life with Trains by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Looking Jewish by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Historians and Historical Societies in the Public Life of Imperial Russia by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Moroccan Noir by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book A Jewish Guide in the Holy Land by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Hölderlin's Hymn "Remembrance" by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book The Bare Bones by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Cambrian Ocean World by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Topophrenia by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Modern Afghanistan by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book The Big Move by Jarrod Tanny
Cover of the book Forest and Labor in Madagascar by Jarrod Tanny
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy