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As the literary and cultural critic Susan Gubar has pointed out, the category "Jewish-American Woman Writer" is not immediately clear, the term “Jewish” remaining more "porous than the words 'American' and 'women.'" Many noted American writers happen to be women and to be Jewish. This course will focus on Jewish-American women writers whose work is identified with Jewish cultural, religious, familial, psychological, ethical, historical, or spiritual issues. Among these writers, important themes have included immigration, assimilation, Jewish mysticism, and the hotly contested second-class status of women in Judaism, a touchstone of which is the prayer uttered by all religious Jewish men daily thanking God for not making them a woman. Women artists and writers who are either religious Jews or highly influenced by religious culture grapple with the consequences of this prayer in their writings. “I've been a problem within a problem,” Adrienne Rich has explained, “'the Jewish Question,' 'the Woman Question' - who the questioner? Who is supposed to answer?” In search of some answers, and of some more questions, this course will explore a range of 20th and 21st century Jewish-American women writers.
Students should purchase the following:
Sydney Taylor, All of a Kind Family (1951) (a children’s book about five little girls growing up in a Jewish family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan)
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925) (Immigrant Jewish families, same location) Also online here: http://faculty.history.umd.edu/BCooperman/NewCity/BreadGivers.html
Rebecca Goldstein, The Mind-Body Problem (1983) (A brilliant Jewish woman in conflict with her orthodox family; education is not their goal for her).
Wendy Wasserstein, Shiksa Goddess: Or, How I Spent My Forties—Essays (2002) (Cultural criticism and great wit from a wonderful playwright)
Cynthia Ozick, The Puttermesser Papers: A Novel (1998) (a modern tale involving an ancient mystical figure—the Golem)
Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A Memoir (2016) (A graphic memoir about the author’s ageing parents) |
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All students: My personal preference, if we meet in person, is for all of us to be (like me) fully vaccinated. The choice is yours, but my chronic condition puts me in life-threatening danger if I am exposed to the Corona virus. Thank you for considering this request. |
