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" Dissent and community in Jewish-American fiction "
I. Y. Gold
N. Tolchin
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1113060
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| Doc. No
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TLpq304023119
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| Main Entry
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I. Y. Gold
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N. Tolchin
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| Title & Author
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Dissent and community in Jewish-American fiction\ I. Y. GoldN. Tolchin
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| College
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City University of New York
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| Date
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1993
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| student score
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1993
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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207
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| Abstract
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For much of this century, American-Jewish literature has been accused of being the work of alienated and marginal writers in revolt against both their ancient traditions and the modern American society. But this study approaches American-Jewish literature from a historical perspective. I hope to prove that the American-Jewish writer is working in a long tradition of dissenter as community builders. Far from being alienated from society, the main concern of the American-Jewish writer is the search for community. Writers such as Anzia Yezierska, Saul Bellow, and Henry Roth, are actually following in the tradition of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who preached against ritual formalism and spiritual poverty. It had been these prophets who, though sometimes ostracized and murdered, had given shape to a community-in-exile that might have otherwise remained shapeless. Similarly, the American-Jewish writers, far from existing in a historical vacuum, are part of this tradition of criticizing a community while at the same time being drawn nearer to it. The chapters of this work each deal with two writers from succeeding decades, beginning in 1912 with Mary Antin's Promised Land. It will become obvious that the Jewish community in America was formed because of a dialectical process between dissenting authors. The cast of the debate took on a historical pattern that began with the Old Testament: Should the Hebrewusd\\usdJewish community open itself up to foreign influences, or should it remain true to a heritage which they believed to be divinely ordained? Historically, and in America, the community actually adopts the dissenters positions, sometimes altering tradition, but making survival possible.
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American literature
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Language, literature and linguistics
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Literature
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