1:25p-2:15p MWF (30) 3 cr

TOPIC: BLACKS AND JEWS IN THE NATIONAL IMAGINATION

The relationship between African Americans and American Jews has long been the focus of intense scrutiny, inspiring warm celebrations of solidarity and heated accusations of betrayal. In this course, we will examine some of these complex exchanges, coalitions and conflicts as they have been represented in 20th-century fiction and non-fiction. By situating representations of inter-group relations in their political, social and historical contexts, we will complicate a strictly binary narrative of alliance and antagonism between African American and Jewish American communities.

We will read works by James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Chester Himes, Julius Lester, Bernard Malamud, Cynthia Ozick, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Rich, and others. Films include The Jazz Singer and Fires in the Mirror.