concept
"Shmuls and Yankels" (stock Jewish names)
Shmuls and Yankels
also: Шмулей, Янкелей, Shmuls, Yankels
Susanna uses the generic Yiddish given names "Shmul" (Shmuel/Samuel) and "Yankel" (Jacob) as a stock collective shorthand for ordinary Jewish men -- a period usage, often disparaging in Russian popular speech, that she deploys about her own people ("I love Shmuls and Yankels to distraction, but...") in the same breath as a stereotype about Jewish avarice, part of the story's sustained pattern of antisemitic characterization voiced through Susanna's own self-description.
Reading notes
- A Guide for Those Wishing to Marry. (Secret) §6 sidelocks
"Shmul" (from the Yiddish given name Shmuel) is used here as a generic stock name for a Jewish man, paired with the sidelocks (peyot) traditionally worn by observant Jewish men, in a period stock-comparison for something conspicuously incomplete.
- The Mire §53 Shmuls and Yankels
Period Russian shorthand, from the common Yiddish/Jewish given names Shmuel ("Shmul") and Yankel (Jacob), for stereotyped ordinary Jewish men. Used here by Susanna herself in a self-mocking, internally conflicted riff -- "I love Shmuls and Yankels to distraction, but..." -- immediately followed by a stereotype about Jewish avarice, part of the story's sustained pattern of antisemitic characterization voiced through Susanna's own self-description rather than only by hostile outsiders.