Abstract The Russia in which Isaak Babel (1894-1940) wrote was one of deep seated anti-Semitic philosophies and prejudices, a place of pogroms and segregation. Literature of this era painted the Jew as a villainous, dishonest, and feeble minded foreign being within society. Traditionally, Russian literature used the Jew as a national scapegoat or a comical stock character ripe for ridicule. Babel’s contemporaries considered him to be a born writer with a gift for minimalism without the sacrifice of vivid description. His was an evocative style of brutal humanism, showing both character flaws and character virtues. The Odesskie rasskazy (Odessa Tales) epitomized this honest approach to human portrayal. The Jewish community of the Odesskie rasskazy boasted a variety of characters from all walks of life, rejecting the previously perpetuated stereotype. The Jew, as shown by Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and Chekhov, was simply a caricature. Such characters were restricted to the role of the fool, the thief, and the opportunist. When Babel first described the community, people, and culture of his native shtetl, the previous stereotype of the Russian Jew became an antiquated relic of the past. This thesis will explore some examples of earlier depiction of Jews in literature and the humanized image of Russian Jewry that Babel created in his Odesskie rasskazy. The analysis will discuss how these depictions created a new, three dimensional characterization of the Jew.

Abstract The Russia in which Isaak Babel (1894-1940) wrote was one of deep seated anti-Semitic philosophies and prejudices, a place of pogroms and segregation. Literature of this era painted the Jew as a villainous, dishonest, and feeble minded foreign being within society. Traditionally, Russian literature used the Jew as a national scapegoat or a comical stock character ripe for ridicule. Babel’s contemporaries considered him to be a born writer with a gift for minimalism without the sacrifice of vivid description. His was an evocative style of brutal humanism, showing both character flaws and character virtues. The Odesskie rasskazy (Odessa Tales) epitomized this honest approach to human portrayal. The Jewish community of the Odesskie rasskazy boasted a variety of characters from all walks of life, rejecting the previously perpetuated stereotype. The Jew, as shown by Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, and Chekhov, was simply a caricature. Such characters were restricted to the role of the fool, the thief, and the opportunist. When Babel first described the community, people, and culture of his native shtetl, the previous stereotype of the Russian Jew became an antiquated relic of the past. This thesis will explore some examples of earlier depiction of Jews in literature and the humanized image of Russian Jewry that Babel created in his Odesskie rasskazy. The analysis will discuss how these depictions created a new, three dimensional characterization of the Jew.

O Diário escrito por Isaak Bábel, durante sua participação na guerra russo-polonesa de 1920, serviu de base para a sua obra mais importante Konármia ou O Exército de Cavalaria. A existência desse material permite entrever os bastidores da técnica criativa de um dos grandes mestres do conto russo do século XX, conforme foi visto na análise de alguns trechos do Diário, comparados com os de Konármia. No entanto, o Diário de 1920, de per si, não deixa de representar, hoje, uma obra com marcantes características literárias. Assim, o nosso objetivo foi, inicialmente, fazer uma tradução direta do Diário de Bábel, do russo para o português. A seguir, ao lado de sua breve biografia, uma análise e uma discussão de sua maneira de construir o que hoje é considerada uma obra literária. / The Diary written by Isaak Babel, during his participation in the Russian-Polish war of 1920, was the basis for his most important work Konarmia also called The Red Cavalry. The existence of this material allows us to foresee the backstage of the creative technique of one of the great Russian short story masters of the XX century, as we saw analysing some parts of the Diary and comparing them to the short stories of Konarmia. However, the 1920 Diary, is considered today by itself a literary work, with relevant artistic characteristics. Therefore, our goal was initially the direct translation of the Diary from Russian into Portuguese. Afterwords, beside his short biography, an analysis and discussion of his method of constructing the Diary as a literary piece.

O Diário escrito por Isaak Bábel, durante sua participação na guerra russo-polonesa de 1920, serviu de base para a sua obra mais importante Konármia ou O Exército de Cavalaria. A existência desse material permite entrever os bastidores da técnica criativa de um dos grandes mestres do conto russo do século XX, conforme foi visto na análise de alguns trechos do Diário, comparados com os de Konármia. No entanto, o Diário de 1920, de per si, não deixa de representar, hoje, uma obra com marcantes características literárias. Assim, o nosso objetivo foi, inicialmente, fazer uma tradução direta do Diário de Bábel, do russo para o português. A seguir, ao lado de sua breve biografia, uma análise e uma discussão de sua maneira de construir o que hoje é considerada uma obra literária. / The Diary written by Isaak Babel, during his participation in the Russian-Polish war of 1920, was the basis for his most important work Konarmia also called The Red Cavalry. The existence of this material allows us to foresee the backstage of the creative technique of one of the great Russian short story masters of the XX century, as we saw analysing some parts of the Diary and comparing them to the short stories of Konarmia. However, the 1920 Diary, is considered today by itself a literary work, with relevant artistic characteristics. Therefore, our goal was initially the direct translation of the Diary from Russian into Portuguese. Afterwords, beside his short biography, an analysis and discussion of his method of constructing the Diary as a literary piece.