All readings are in English translation. This course covers representative works of fiction by Italian, French, English, Russian, American, Canadian, and Israeli Jewish writers. Not all nationalities are covered in the syllabus for any given year. Discussion centers on a close analysis of the novels, comparing individual and national responses to the Jewish twentieth-century experience. By including fiction written across Europe, North America, and Israel, while limiting the time frame to the years following World War II, the question of whether there exists one or more approaches to fiction that are characteristically Jewish is addressed.
All readings are in English translation.
This course introduces students to issues of minority identity within multi-ethnic empires. Students examine the interplay of these changes and study Jewish reactions to the social, psychological, and economic limitations of their existence. Babel and Kafka. Literary representations of the Jewish experience are studied both as masterworks of the Western tradition and within the context of contemporary Jewish history and documents. The class format involves lectures and discussions.