Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-015
David Hadar, R. Emerson
My book Affiliated Identities in Jewish American Literature suggests a framework for understanding writers’ Jewish identity.1 The basic argument of Affiliated Identities is that Jewish writers often build, shape, and maintain their public identities as Jews by way of exhibiting ties with other Jewish writers. Much of this networking takes place as part of works of literature. I believe that this framework is highly pertinent for the pedagogy of Jewish literature in higher education, especially Jewish literature as a transnational multi-lingual phenomenon. In this short paper, I will suggest that instructors can use this idea as tool for designing courses or segments of courses. Thus, the teaching of Jewish literature can be planned around a certain author’s network of literary affiliations. At least in the American case, which was my focus, these ties are often international rather than restricted to a national canon (or even to a linguistic one). Thus, designing courses around the concept of Jewish literary networking will also establish Jewish literature’s multi-lingual and border-crossing nature in a way that is more organic than simply deploying a survey of “the best of” Jewish writing in a plethora of languages. Furthermore, Jewish writers also connect themselves to non-Jewish writers. Following these links can help show how Jewish writing is embedded in non-Jewish national and linguistic traditions. Let me give two American examples for what I mean. The idea of the course is to have an author or a text as the central node of a literary network and then explore (or let students explore) the other texts or authors that are once or twice removed from this central node. In the first example the center is an author, while in the second example it is a novel that works to connect its authors to other writers. Emma Lazarus is often credited as the founding mother of Jewish American literature. She is hardly a household name, but three lines she wrote are some of the most well-known lines in American poetry. They come from “The New Colossus,” a poem dedicated to The Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore” (Lazarus 2005, 48–9). Lazarus comes from a German Jewish and Sephardi heritage. Both sides of her family have lived in America before she was born and were largely assimilated. At the beginning of her career she
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Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-020
{"title":"Primo Levi: Between Literature and the World","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130544552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-016
Sarah Sohrabi
It is uncontested that Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are among the most important thinkers of French expression in the twentieth century. Due to the complexity and vast scope of their writings, it is, however, rare to find their texts in French Studies curricula in German universites. Nonetheless, these oeuvres contain texts that, due to their brevity and composition, are not only highly suitable for academic education, but also address fundamental issues of our time such as displacement, migration and belonging and their representation in language. This contribution aims to illustrate this by means of two essays. First, Mon Algériance by Hélène Cixous, a short essay that was first published 1997 in Les Inrockuptibles, a journal explicitly dedicated to participating in the public sphere.1 The second text is L’anti-Macias : Moi, l’Algérien by Jacques Derrida, published in 2003 in Le Matin.2
{"title":"Case Study: Belonging in Dialogue. How to Integrate Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida in French Literary Studies","authors":"Sarah Sohrabi","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-016","url":null,"abstract":"It is uncontested that Hélène Cixous and Jacques Derrida are among the most important thinkers of French expression in the twentieth century. Due to the complexity and vast scope of their writings, it is, however, rare to find their texts in French Studies curricula in German universites. Nonetheless, these oeuvres contain texts that, due to their brevity and composition, are not only highly suitable for academic education, but also address fundamental issues of our time such as displacement, migration and belonging and their representation in language. This contribution aims to illustrate this by means of two essays. First, Mon Algériance by Hélène Cixous, a short essay that was first published 1997 in Les Inrockuptibles, a journal explicitly dedicated to participating in the public sphere.1 The second text is L’anti-Macias : Moi, l’Algérien by Jacques Derrida, published in 2003 in Le Matin.2","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115028712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-027
I. Milner
A symposium dedicated to research and teaching of Modern Hebrew literature within the framework of a wide, interdisciplinary literary context, provides us with a precious opportunity to reflect upon our work in the field. For me, one course such reflection may take is a renewed consideration of literature’s embedded tendency to dismantle predominant narratives, among them monolithic national narratives which literature in general, and Modern Hebrew literature in particular, is often assumed to support and fortify. This is particularly relevant to my present research and teaching; My readings of the literature of some of the prominent authors of Hebrew literature of the past 100 years focus on their attempts at transgressing confined borders, by way of constantly searching for “decentered-ness” and exposing a fundamental yearning for otherness. These readings indeed expose literature’s embedded resistance to the canonization of a national narrative, founded on prescribed conventions of identity, place and time. I believe an emphasis on these subversive aspects of Modern Hebrew literature provides a ground for studying and teaching it in the context of such recently flourishing interdisciplinary discourses as Diasporic Studies, Exile Studies, Migration and Immigration Studies, Minority Studies, Trauma Studies and Post-Colonial studies in general.1 An outstanding example of a consistent resistance to a national narrative is the oeuvre of a unique and highly appreciated woman author of Hebrew prose, Yehudit Hendel. Hendel, a 2003 Israel Prize laureate, was a rather prolific writer until her death in 2014. Born in Warsaw in 1921 to “Bundist” parents who opposed Zionist ideology and refused to join their Hassidic family that had immigrated to Palestine, but later changed their mind, she arrived in Haifa at the age of 9.2 She began publishing short stories at a very young age, and in 1949, after a
{"title":"The Unhomely In/Of Hebrew Literature","authors":"I. Milner","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-027","url":null,"abstract":"A symposium dedicated to research and teaching of Modern Hebrew literature within the framework of a wide, interdisciplinary literary context, provides us with a precious opportunity to reflect upon our work in the field. For me, one course such reflection may take is a renewed consideration of literature’s embedded tendency to dismantle predominant narratives, among them monolithic national narratives which literature in general, and Modern Hebrew literature in particular, is often assumed to support and fortify. This is particularly relevant to my present research and teaching; My readings of the literature of some of the prominent authors of Hebrew literature of the past 100 years focus on their attempts at transgressing confined borders, by way of constantly searching for “decentered-ness” and exposing a fundamental yearning for otherness. These readings indeed expose literature’s embedded resistance to the canonization of a national narrative, founded on prescribed conventions of identity, place and time. I believe an emphasis on these subversive aspects of Modern Hebrew literature provides a ground for studying and teaching it in the context of such recently flourishing interdisciplinary discourses as Diasporic Studies, Exile Studies, Migration and Immigration Studies, Minority Studies, Trauma Studies and Post-Colonial studies in general.1 An outstanding example of a consistent resistance to a national narrative is the oeuvre of a unique and highly appreciated woman author of Hebrew prose, Yehudit Hendel. Hendel, a 2003 Israel Prize laureate, was a rather prolific writer until her death in 2014. Born in Warsaw in 1921 to “Bundist” parents who opposed Zionist ideology and refused to join their Hassidic family that had immigrated to Palestine, but later changed their mind, she arrived in Haifa at the age of 9.2 She began publishing short stories at a very young age, and in 1949, after a","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128221228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-025
{"title":"Jewish Writing and Gender between the National and the Transnational","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132155829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-017
{"title":"Teaching Contemporary French Literature: The Case of Cécile Wajsbrot","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114979365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-12DOI: 10.1515/9783110619003-014
P. Fischer
There are many good reasons to teach Jewish-American literature at German universities. An obvious motivation, which hardly applies to the German context alone, is that many novels and short stories of Jewish writers undoubtedly constitute an important part of the canon of American fiction in general. At the same time, this literature falls into the category of minority writing and thus negotiates identities distinct from the American mainstream. Several theoretical concepts of postcolonial studies, ‘race,’ ‘alterity,’ and ‘hybridity’ among them, should be part of a teaching unit on Jewish writing, particularly if it deals with the immigrant experience. The contested idea of the American Melting Pot, popularized by the Jewish-British author Israel Zangwill, may be discussed in conjunction with Jewish-American landmark texts addressing the issue of assimilation. In this essay, I will focus primarily on arguments that are of particular relevance to German higher education: the linguistic particularities of Jewish-American literature by authors of Eastern European descent and the cultural proximity of parts of American Jewry to German students. Apart from my principal aim of facilitating a deeper understanding of Jewish-American literature for them, I also want to bring to mind that Jewish history does not consist of the Holocaust only. Frequently, Jewish history is exclusively equated with the Holocaust, which may preclude an appreciation of existing Jewish life-worlds. I want to counterbalance this tendency by offering students the opportunity to go through complex processes of identification, empathy and understanding. I have been teaching Jewish-American literature and culture for many years at several universities in Germany and I am now part of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Bamberg, which includes modules on literature, the arts and other aspects of culture. The number of students in this program being modest, most of the participants in the lectures and seminars I teach on this topic are regular students of English and American Studies. The starting point for my reflections on teaching Jewish literature in this context may sound a bit sobering: Most of the students have very little previous knowledge of Jewish history and culture and – for that matter – languages.Without these insights, clearly, it is hard to understand many of the central concerns, conflicts and stylistic characteristics of Jewish-American fiction. Our students have certainly learnt a few things about the Jewish faith at school, and one can also rely on reasonable knowledge of the history of anti-Se-
{"title":"Yiddish in Jewish-American Literature: An Asset to Teaching at German Universities","authors":"P. Fischer","doi":"10.1515/9783110619003-014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110619003-014","url":null,"abstract":"There are many good reasons to teach Jewish-American literature at German universities. An obvious motivation, which hardly applies to the German context alone, is that many novels and short stories of Jewish writers undoubtedly constitute an important part of the canon of American fiction in general. At the same time, this literature falls into the category of minority writing and thus negotiates identities distinct from the American mainstream. Several theoretical concepts of postcolonial studies, ‘race,’ ‘alterity,’ and ‘hybridity’ among them, should be part of a teaching unit on Jewish writing, particularly if it deals with the immigrant experience. The contested idea of the American Melting Pot, popularized by the Jewish-British author Israel Zangwill, may be discussed in conjunction with Jewish-American landmark texts addressing the issue of assimilation. In this essay, I will focus primarily on arguments that are of particular relevance to German higher education: the linguistic particularities of Jewish-American literature by authors of Eastern European descent and the cultural proximity of parts of American Jewry to German students. Apart from my principal aim of facilitating a deeper understanding of Jewish-American literature for them, I also want to bring to mind that Jewish history does not consist of the Holocaust only. Frequently, Jewish history is exclusively equated with the Holocaust, which may preclude an appreciation of existing Jewish life-worlds. I want to counterbalance this tendency by offering students the opportunity to go through complex processes of identification, empathy and understanding. I have been teaching Jewish-American literature and culture for many years at several universities in Germany and I am now part of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Bamberg, which includes modules on literature, the arts and other aspects of culture. The number of students in this program being modest, most of the participants in the lectures and seminars I teach on this topic are regular students of English and American Studies. The starting point for my reflections on teaching Jewish literature in this context may sound a bit sobering: Most of the students have very little previous knowledge of Jewish history and culture and – for that matter – languages.Without these insights, clearly, it is hard to understand many of the central concerns, conflicts and stylistic characteristics of Jewish-American fiction. Our students have certainly learnt a few things about the Jewish faith at school, and one can also rely on reasonable knowledge of the history of anti-Se-","PeriodicalId":265491,"journal":{"name":"Disseminating Jewish Literatures","volume":"133 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125276730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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