Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0209 - 20th-C. European (Jewish) Literature: Writing and Diaspora

The 20th century was a period of great upheaval for Jews in all parts of Europe, as they faced transformative pressures of modernization, nationalism, revolution, war, and exile; the literature written by Jews in western, eastern, and central Europe is amazingly rich and diverse. The Jewishness of their writings will not be the central theme, but will serve as the thread to connect a stunning variety of imaginative texts written in a plethora of languages (French, German, Yiddish, Polish, Hungarian, Russian). We will read stories, poems, and short novels that range from the surreal and hallucinatory to the realistic depiction of everyday life. We will also see some films made from these works. Writers will probably include Else Lasker-Schuler, Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Isaac Babel, Anna Seghers, Osip Mandelstam, Paul Celan, Vasily Grossman, Kadia Molodowsky, Georges Perec, Elias Canetti, Irene Nemerovsky, Joseph Roth, Imre Kertesz, Hannah Arendt, Jurek Becker, and Chava Rosenfarb. Keywords:Literature, Jewish Studies

Time and Narrative Students should expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time