 2014 - 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0680-8300-01 | Jewish Writing and Theories of Literature | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 2.0
Course description
Modern Jewish Writing and Theories of Literature
MA Seminar
This seminar will explore the concept of “Jewish literature”, specifically modern Jewish literature, as debated within Jewish literary history and as it pertains to topics in literary study, such as multilingualism, bilingual aesthetics, minority writing, intertextuality, literature and collective identity, ethnicity, translation theory, speech and voice, metalanguage and cultural mediation. The literary texts will be drawn from transnational Yiddish literature (Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Lamed Shapiro), Jewish American literature in English (Abraham Cahan, Cynthia Ozick, Saul Bellow, Israel Zangwill), Jewish American poets (Linda Pastan, Charles Reznikoff, Irena Klepfisz, and Jacqueline Osherow), and European (German) literature (Franz Kafka). These categories are themselves subject to discussion. We will be posing questions that pertain to the production, reception, and poetics of these works as they reflect assumptions about modern Jewish literature.
Critical readings will be drawn from the works of Bal Makhshoves, M.M. Bakhtin, David Damrosch, Jacques Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Amos Funkenstein, Stephen Greenblatt, Amos Funkenstein, Benjamin Harshav, Johannes Herder, Chana Kronfeld, Dan Miron, Shmuel Niger, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Rabin, David Roskies, Maurice Samuel, Naomi Seidman, Doris Sommer, and Ruth Wisse. (This is an incomplete list—some of these texts are recommended readings for further study, others are compulsory for class discussion.)
The language of instruction for this course is English. Papers will be accepted in English, Hebrew or Yiddish. Students in the Department of English and American Studies must submit their papers in English; students in the MA Yiddish track will have access to the Yiddish version of works where applicable. Although none of the works are originally in Hebrew, the classes devoted to translation strategies include both English and Hebrew translations.
Assignments:
Students are required to submit two short papers (topics to be announced) and to write a referat. Students will be evaluated based on class discussion and submitted papers.
MA Seminar
This seminar will explore the concept of “Jewish literature”, specifically modern Jewish literature, as debated within Jewish literary history and as it pertains to topics in literary study, such as multilingualism, bilingual aesthetics, minority writing, intertextuality, literature and collective identity, ethnicity, translation theory, speech and voice, metalanguage and cultural mediation. The literary texts will be drawn from transnational Yiddish literature (Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Lamed Shapiro), Jewish American literature in English (Abraham Cahan, Cynthia Ozick, Saul Bellow, Israel Zangwill), Jewish American poets (Linda Pastan, Charles Reznikoff, Irena Klepfisz, and Jacqueline Osherow), and European (German) literature (Franz Kafka). These categories are themselves subject to discussion. We will be posing questions that pertain to the production, reception, and poetics of these works as they reflect assumptions about modern Jewish literature.
Critical readings will be drawn from the works of Bal Makhshoves, M.M. Bakhtin, David Damrosch, Jacques Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Amos Funkenstein, Stephen Greenblatt, Amos Funkenstein, Benjamin Harshav, Johannes Herder, Chana Kronfeld, Dan Miron, Shmuel Niger, Cynthia Ozick, Chaim Rabin, David Roskies, Maurice Samuel, Naomi Seidman, Doris Sommer, and Ruth Wisse. (This is an incomplete list—some of these texts are recommended readings for further study, others are compulsory for class discussion.)
The language of instruction for this course is English. Papers will be accepted in English, Hebrew or Yiddish. Students in the Department of English and American Studies must submit their papers in English; students in the MA Yiddish track will have access to the Yiddish version of works where applicable. Although none of the works are originally in Hebrew, the classes devoted to translation strategies include both English and Hebrew translations.
Assignments:
Students are required to submit two short papers (topics to be announced) and to write a referat. Students will be evaluated based on class discussion and submitted papers.