English 230 - AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE

Same as CLT 231. Explores the significant contribution of Jewish writers and critics to the development of American literature, broadly defined. Topics include the American dream and its discontents; ethnic satire and humor; literary multilingualism; crises of the left involving Communism, Black-Jewish relations, and '60s radicalism; after-effects of the Holocaust; and the aesthetic engagement with folklore. Authors include Mary Antin, Henry Roth, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow, Cynthia Ozick. Yiddish, Canadian and Latin-American writers provide transnational perspective. Must Jewish writing in the Americas remain on the margins, "too Jewish" for the mainstream yet "too white" to qualify as multicultural? No prerequisites.