“Always Hungry: The Short Story as Cultural and Narrative Space in Anzia Yezierska’s Fiction”

Abstract

This essay examines the short fiction of Anzia Yezierska. It argues that her literary imagination finds its most compelling realization in the short story, a form uniquely suited to the intensity, brevity, and culturally hybrid perspective of her work. Her narratives explore the immigrant Jewish woman’s struggle for cultural integration and personal emancipation, articulating a persistent tension between Old World deprivation and New World promise. Central to this study is the concept of “hunger,” both literal and symbolic, as a driving force in Yezierska’s prose, reflecting her characters’ spiritual, emotional, and aesthetic desires. The essay situates her writing within the broader context of early twentieth-century American realism and modernist experimentation, highlighting how the short story form enables her to navigate the constraints of her hybrid identity, linguistic innovation, and socio-cultural marginality. Ultimately, Yezierska’s stories are presented as a distinct narrative niche, a concentrated space where memory, desire, and cultural translation converge, producing a voice both intensely personal and resonant with collective experience.