English 345-03 Jewish-American Literature                 Spring 2000
R. Barbara Gitenstein and Ellen G. Friedman, Instructors

Gitenstein: rbgit@tcnj.edu, Green Hall; call for appointment: 771-2101
Friedman: friedman@tcnj.edu, Bliss 116, o: 771-2539 
Office hours: Bliss 116 M: 10-11, W 8:30-9:30 F: 9-10 and by appointment

Required Texts

Michaels, Anne. Fugitive Pieces. NY: Vintage, 1998.
Olsen, Tillie. Tell Me A Riddle. NY: Delta, 1971.
Ostriker, Alicia. The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1997.
Ozick, Cynthia. Cannibal Galaxy.Syracuse UP, 1995.
Roth, Philip. Ghost Writer.NY: Vintage, 1995.
Rothenberg, Jerome. Poland: 1931. NY: New Directions, 1974.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Enemies: A Love Story. N Y: Farrar, 1972.
Stern, Gerald. This Time: New and Selected Poems.NY: Norton, 1999.
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers. N Y: Persea, 1925.

Recommended Text

Malamud, Bernard. Stories.

Syllabus

January 19th
Introduction to themes and writers, course requirements (one hour)
Guest Lecturer: Cynthia Paces, History Department: Waves of Jewish Immigration

Theme 1: Immigration

January 26th
Singer, Enemies: A Love Story
Student Presentation Topics: Isaac Bashevis Singer---Critical biography;Typical elements of Yiddish literature; Elements of Yiddish literature in Enemies

February 2nd
Jerome Rothenberg, Poland 1931
Student Presentation Topics: Rothenberg, Critical biography; Close reading of a section of Poland 1931

February 9th
AnziaYezierska. The Bread Givers and Tillie Olsen's "Tell Me a Riddle"
Student Presentation Topics: Yezierska, critical biography; Olsen, critical biography; Jewish immigrant women writers

Theme II: Holocaust

February 16th
Packet of Holocaust Poetry
Student Presentation Topics: What are the proper subjects for Holocaust literature?

February 23rd
Sophie's Choice: the film
Student Presentation Topics: Holocaust literature by non-Jews and non-survivors

March 1st
Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
Student Presentations Topics: Anne Michaels, a critical biography;Literature by children of survivors

March 8th Midterm: Essay Examination

Theme III: Assimilation and Identity

March 15th
Malamud: "Idiot's First," "Black is My Favorite Color," "The Magic Barrel," "The German Refugee," etc.
Student Presentation Topics: Bernard Malamud, critical biography; Jewish identities: What is the problem? Examples of different Jewish identity types as exemplified in Malamud’s stories

March 29th Gerald Stem, poet -- This Time: New and Selected Poems

April 5th
Ozick, Cannibal Galaxy
Student Presentation Topics: Cynthia Ozick, critical biography; other Jewish feminists

Theme IV- Talking Back to the Tradition

April 12th Alicia Ostriker, poet -- The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions

April 19th Poetry packet

April 26th
Philip Roth, Ghost Writer
Student Presentation: Three-minute presentation by every student sharing term papers
 

Paper Topic

Select a major theme taken up in the course (immigration, assimilation, identity, "talking back to the tradition," or the holocaust) and discuss a novel, collection of poems, or collection of short stories not covered in the syllabus as an additional text on that theme. Compare and contrast your novel or author to authors and texts discussed in class as part of your paper. Your paper must have an intelligent thesis that you substantiate with compelling textual evidence.

Grades

Midterm-20%; Final Exam-20%; Oral Report-20%, Term Paper-20%, Class Participation-20%

On Library Reserve
  AUTHOR TITLE
BM496.5.H34 1982 Handelman The Slayer of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory
BM729.W6F45 1994 Davidman/Tenenbaum Feminist Perspectives on Jewish Studies
DS143.B8 1996 Boyarin Thinking in Jewish
F128.9.J5H6 Howe World of Our Fathers
PJ5124.H34 1988 Hadda Passionate Women Passive Men: Suicide in Yiddish Literature
PJ5124.P5 Pinsker The Schlemiel as Metaphor: Studies in the Yiddish and American Jewish Novel
PN49.S84 1993 Spolsky Summoning: Ideas of the Covenant and Interpretive Theory
PN56.3.J4H67 1997 Horowitz Voicing the Void: Muteness and Memory in Holocaust Fiction
PN842.W66 1994 Baskin Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing
PN1998.2.D47 1993 Desser/Friedman American-Jewish Filmmakers: Traditions and Trends
PN6120.95.J6O94 1998 Stavans The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories
PN6149.J4W5 1971 Wisse The Schlemiel as Modern Hero
PN6149.J4J48 1990 Cohen Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor
PN6149.J4S45 1993 Ziv/Zajdman Semites and Stereotypes: Characteristics of Jewish Humor
PS153.J4B468 1997 Berger Children of Job: American-Second-Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust
PS153.J4B87 1996 Burstein Writing Mothers, Writing Daughters: Tracing Maternal in Stories by American Jewish Women
PS153.J4F87 1997 Furman Israel Through the Jewish-American Imagination: A Survey of Jewish-American Literature on Israel:

1928-1995
PS153.J4G57 1986 Gitenstein Apocalyptic Messianism and Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry
PS153.J4G8 Guttman The Jewish Writer in America: Assimilation and the Crisis of Identity
PS173.J4H294 1987 Harap Dramatic Encounters: The Jewish Presence in Twentieth-Century American Drama, Poetry, and Humor and the Black-Jewish Literary Relationship
PS153.J4H365 1988 Fried Handbook of American Jewish Literature: An Analytical Guide to Topics, Themes, and Sources
PS153.J4H37 1987 Harap In the Mainstream: The Jewish Presence in Twentieth-Century American Literature, 1950s-1980s
PS374.J48J48 1998 Bloom Jewish Fiction Women Writers
PS647.J4A49 1998 Shapiro American Jewish Fiction: a Century of Stories
     
PS153.J4B47 1985 Berger Crisis and Covenant: The Holocaust in American Jewish Fiction
PS153.J4C46 1986 Chametzky Our Decentralized Literature: Cultural Mediations in Selected Jewish and Southern Writers