The passing game
Subtitle: queering Jewish American culture
By: Warren Hoffman.
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
ISBN-13: 9780815632023
Subjects: American literature -- Jewish authors -- History and criticism; Yiddish literature -- United States -- History and criticism; Jews in literature; Gender identity in literature; Passing (Identity) in literature; Theater, Yiddish -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Jews -- United States -- Identity; Queer theory
Description: Tony Kushner's award-winning epic play Angels in America was remarkable not only for its sensitive engagement of Jewish- American and gay culture but also for bringing these themes to a mainstream audience. While the play represented a watershed in American theater and culture, it belies a hundred years of previous attention to queer Jewish identity in twentieth-century American literature, drama, and film. Sheds light on this long history, taking up both Yiddish and English narratives that explore the tensions among Jewish identity, queer sexuality, performance, and American citizenship. Examines the 1907 Yiddish play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, the cross-dressing films of Yiddish actress Molly Picon, and several short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Analyzes the English-language novels The Rise of David Levinsky (Abraham Cahan), Wasteland (Jo Sinclair), and Portnoy's Complaint (Phillip Roth). Highlights the ways in which the characters in these canonical texts attempt to pass as white, straight, and American in the early and mid-twentieth century. From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Lost in translation, or, The epistemology of Sholem Asch's Got fun nekome; title: The rise (and fall) of David Levinsky : performing Jewish American heterosexuality; title: Oy, is this a girl!/? : Molly Picon and cross-dressed "passing"; title: Coming out of the "closet" at midcentury : Jo Sinclair's Wasteland; title: Butching it up : male hysteria and heterosexual performance in Portnoy's complaint; title: Androgynous stories : gender ambiguity in the short stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer.