| Description |
x, 271 pages ; 23 cm |
| Contents |
Defining the Indefinable: What Is Jewish Literature? / Hana Wirth-Nesher -- I. Jewish Literature in "Exile"? On Jewish Storytelling / Saul Bellow. America: Toward Yavneh / Cynthia Ozick. The Question of American Jewish Poetry / John Hollander. Jewish Dreams and Nightmares / Robert Alter -- II. Jewish, Hebrew, or Israeli Literature? One Literature in Two Languages / Baal-Makhshoves. Notes on Hebrew Literature / Baruch Kurzweil. Israeli or Jewish Literature? / Yonatan Ratosh. Modern Hebrew Literature: Zionist Perspectives and Israeli Realities / Dan Miron -- III. Yiddish Language, Jewish Culture? The Story's the Thing / David G. Roskies. Two Jews Talking: A View of Modern Yiddish Literature / Ruth R. Wisse. The Semiotics of Yiddish Communication / Benjamin Harshav -- IV. Individual Voices, A Common Tradition? Four Case Studies. Shadows of Identity: A Comparative Study of German Jewish and American Jewish Literature / Gershon Shaked |
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Lost Voices: Jewish Authors in Modern Arabic Literature / Sasson Somekh. The Example of Isaac Babel / Simon Markish. From Newark to Prague: Roth's Place in the American Jewish Literary Tradition / Hana Wirth-Nesher |
| Summary |
Is tradition the yardstick? Do we then classify Saul Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet as a Jewish novel ... as Holocaust literature ... as American fiction? What Is Jewish Literature? debates all these possibilities. It is a landmark collection that encourages the reader to participate in the quest for answers that defy simple responses. The contributors reflect the multilingual and multicultural nature of any discussion of Jewish literature. Their voices range from polemical to speculative, from scientific to lyrical. What Is Jewish Literature? is an enduring contribution to the literary resource for the scholar, the teacher, and the student and for any individual who strives to appreciate, evaluate, and understand the varied riches of Jewish writing |
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What Is Jewish Literature? is a richly thoughtful analysis and comprehensive overview of what defines Jewish literature. It is an international collection, featuring authors and scholars who write in different languages from different literary, spiritual, and personal perspectives. The book explores long-standing questions: What are the criteria for identifying Jewish literature? Are they language, religious affiliation of the author, religious sensibility, a distinctive Jewish imagination, or literary tradition? If the writer is the criterion, do Sholem Aleichem and Nathanael West really inhabit a shared universe? Is a text by S.Y. Agnon part of the same literary tradition as a play by Arthur Miller? Is Yiddish or Hebrew or Ladino the defining element? If so, where do we place Franz Kafka, Primo Levi, Elie Weisel, Saul Bellow, Nellie Sachs? |
| Bibliography |
Includes biliographical references (pages 235-237) and index |
| Notes |
Also issued online |
| Subject |
American literature -- Jewish autbors -- History and criticism
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American literature -- Jewish authors -- History and criticism.
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Israeli literature -- History and criticism.
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Jewish literature -- History and criticism.
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Jews -- Identity.
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Jews -- Intellectual life.
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Judaism and literature.
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| Author |
Wirth-Nesher, Hana, 1948-
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| LC no. |
94002270 |
| ISBN |
0827605137 (cloth) |
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0827605382 |
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