Advanced Course

 

From the poem on the Statue of Liberty to the novels of Philip Roth, Jewish American literature has played a major role in the construction of American identity. This course will cover works of Jewish American literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, and will encompass short stories, novels, poems, drama, graphic novels and film. Among the topics that will be discussed are immigration, migration, ethnicity, race, religion, humor, collective memory, representation of the Holocaust, Israel in the Jewish American imagination, and the languages, dialects, and accents of Jewish American voices. Readings will be drawn from the following authors (selective list): Emma Lazarus, Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, AnziaYezierska, Lamed Shapiro, Delmore Schwartz, Isaac Rosenfeld, Charles Reznikoff, Henry Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Nicole Krauss.