2:30P-3:20P MWF (35) 3 cr

Beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century, American
literature broadened its mainstream tradition to include a type
of author seldom seen in earlier periods.  I refer to our ethnic
writers, whose works reveal just how culturally complex American
life can be.  This course, devoted to a study of some
representative Jewish writers, will aim to clarify several major
aspects of this complexity, all of them rooted in a sense of
history older and wider than America's own.

We shall begin by reflecting on the Eastern European origins of
American-Jewish writing and then try to see how our writers link
the major traditions of American literature with traditions that
derive from the European past.  Accordingly, our concerns will be
with both the connections and the confrontations between old
world and new and with how literature tries to negotiate a
balance between them.  In studying a body of writing that
registers a strong sense of history as well as a strong will
towards modernity, we shall come to better understand some of the
notable accomplishments of recent American literature as well as
some of the tensions and contradictions inherent in the American
experience.

Among other matters, we shall take up the following: How can
American-Jewish writers help us understand the nature of the
American character?  How can they help us understand what it
means to be an American Jew?  What do they have to tell us about
the place and importance in our lives of love, work, the family,
religion, education, the intellectual, individual freedom,
communal loyalty?  These and related questions will form the core
of our discussions over the course of the semester.

The list of required readings is not yet finished, but it is
likely to include such authors as the following: Mary Antin,
Abraham Cahan, Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Cynthia
Ozick, I.B. Singer, and Anne Roiphe.

There are no prerequisites for L241.  The course is open to all
students with an interest in the subject matter and a willingness
to do the assigned readings on schedule.  Regular attendance of
all class meetings is expected, as is active participation in
class discussion.  Written work will include in-class as well as
out-of-class examinations and a term paper.