Das Purimspiel „Mordche und Eßter“: Wie weit kommt man mit textzentrierter Analyse, wenn textexterne Kontextuierungen fehlen
The Purimshpil “Mordkhe and Ester”: How far can textcentred analysis take us, given the lack of contextualisation?

Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the Purim play “Mordkhe und Ester, eine komische Operette in einen [sic] Aufzug von R. Leib Zimbler”, which probably dates from the end of the 18th century. Its date of origin makes it an interesting topic of research for several reasons: i) The period in which the script was first published is one that saw the rapid disappearance of Yiddish as a language of communication. ii) The contrast between the characters in this play is expressed mainly on a linguistic level: the aristocratic characters tend to speak in a “written” style of German that often sounds grammatically incorrect and clumsy, while Mordkhe, a typical Jewish character, expresses himself in Yiddish. iii) The embedding of the text in its historical and cultural context is made more difficult by the fact that the information external to the text is either uncertain or not available at all. For this reason, however, it is also an ideal test case for a text-centred analysis. Based on such an approach, this study examines the play’s central literary topoi and the peculiarities of its linguistic markings in order to demonstrate how it reflects the social and religious problems faced by Jews at the end of the 18th century.

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