This seminar will explore concepts of Jewish Literature(s) as frameworks for discussing the work of authors who wrote in Yiddish, English, and German in the United States and Europe. Readings will be drawn from literary works, as well as theoretical and critical writings. Among the topics that will be addressed are translation, cultural memory, the connection between politics and imagination, accents and oral representations, bodily and verbal experiences.

The works of literature in this course will be mainly Jewish American and Yiddish writings by Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Chava Rosenfarb, Franz Kafka, Celia Dropkin, Israel Zangwill, Isaac Rosenfeld, Cynthia Ozick, and Grace Paley  (among others).

Critical readings will be drawn from the works of  Bal Makhshoves, Shmuel Niger, Benjamin Harshav, Mikhail Bakhtin, Dan Miron, Deleuze and Guattari,  Charles Sanders Peirce, Naomi Seidman, Chana Kronfeld, Emily Apter,  Cynthia Ozick, and David Roskies (among others).

The language of instruction for this course is English. Student are free to speak in Hebrew in class and to submit papers in  English, Hebrew or  Yiddish. * Reading materials on the Moodle site will be posted in the original language and in  translations where available and appropriate.

 Students are required to come to class prepared to discuss the material, to submit two short responses to readings (assignments will be specified), and to write a referat.

*Students in the Department of English and American Studies must submit their papers in English.