Jewish Literature: A Very Short Introduction

Description

The story of Jewish literature spans the globe as well as the centuries. It includes groups as diverse as the marrano poets and memorialists in medieval Spain, the Yiddish writings of Eastern Europe, the narratives of Jewish immigrants to the United States, the accounts of horror during the Holocaust, the work of Israeli authors since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, and Jewish works in Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, and South Africa at the end of the twentieth century.

In this thought-provoking introduction to Jewish literature from 1492 to the present, Ilan Stavans focuses on its multilingual and transnational nature, presents its subject through the kaleidoscope of its many writers and traditions. He features writers as diverse as Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, Anzia Yezierska, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Irving Howe, Clarice Lispector, Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, Grace Paley, Amos Oz, and David Grossman.

• The first comprehensive introduction to Jewish literature
• Examines Jewish literature beyond national borders and across linguistic divides
• Presents Jewish literature as diverse, pluralistic, and truly global

About the Author(s)

Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst College

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish and Oy, Caramba!: An Anthology of Jewish Stories from Latin American, and he is the editor of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories. His worked has been translated into twenty languages and has been adapted for film, TV, radio, and theater.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: People of the Book
Chapter Two: After the Expulsion
Chapter Three: The Age of Anxiety
Chapter Four: Into the Abyss
Chapter Five: Into the Mainstream
Chapter Six: The Ingathering
Chapter Seven: The Promised Land
Chapter Eight: The Letterless Canon
References
Further Reading
Index

Reviews

"Reading Jewish literature becomes a stimulating journey; Stavans jumps from one author to another without clinging to either time or space." - Tessa Calders i Artís, Escola de libreria