The Private Goes Public: Gender and Cultural Spaces in Abraham Cahan's Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto

This essay explores the relations between cultural spaces and gender in Abraham Cahan's text Yekl. American culture at the turn into the twentieth century was becoming increasingly theatrical. In this process public and private spaces as well as conceptions of gender were transformed. By contrasting the two female characters Mamie and Gitl in Cahan's text these transformations become most evident.