Dr. Ariel Pridan

Ariel Pridan holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale University. Her scholarship focuses primarily on modern Jewish literatures written in German, Yiddish, and Hebrew. She is particularly interested in examining the role of literature in the project of Jewish modernization and its contribution to discursive debates related to Die Judenfrage.

In her doctoral dissertation, titled “Going Urban: The Jewish Experience of the Metropolis in Early 20th Century Literature” (2023), Ariel explores the production of urban space in modern Jewish literatures written in German, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Through a close reading of texts written by Yosef Haim Brenner, Dovid Bergelson, and Joseph Roth, Ariel’s dissertation examines the potential of urban spaces to foster a neutral civic culture and contribute to political discussions concerning the capacity of Jewish individuals to shed their particularistic traits and embrace citizenship in modern nation-states.

Ariel’s forthcoming research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the production of urban space in the prose fiction of Jewish women writers written in German during the first decades of the 20th century. The exploration of the literary strategies employed by Jewish women writers in representing and producing urban spaces intends to shed light on their important participation in shaping the political and cultural discourse concerning the relations of modern Jewish subjects to space.