Jewish American Literature Essay

Jewish American Literature holds an essential place in the literary hi explanation of the united States. It encompasses traditions of piece of opus in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the just about important of which has been Yiddish. While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a characteristic corpus and practice of create verbally about Jewishness in America, more writers resist being pigeonholed as Jewish voices. Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered instance of Jewish American publications, matchless example being Isaac Asimov.Beginning with the memoirs and petitions composed by the Sephardic immigrants who arrived in America during the mid 17th century, Jewish American writing grew over the subsequent centuries to flourish in other genres as well, including fiction, poetry, and drama. The first notable voice in Jewish- American lit was Emma Lazarus whose poem The New teras on the Statue of Liberty became the grea t hymnal of American immigration. Gertrude Stein became one of the most influential prose-stylists of the early 20th century.The early ordinal century dictum the appearance of two pioneering American Jewish storys Abraham Cahans The Rise of David Levinsky and Henry Roths Call it Sleep. It reached some of its most mature expression in the 20th century Jewish American novels by Saul Bellow, J. D. Salinger, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Chaim Potok, and Philip Roth. Their work explored the conflicting pulls between secular society and Jewish tradition which were acutely felt by the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island and by their children and grandchildren.More recent authors like Nicole Krauss, Paul Auster, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer andArt Spiegelman have continued to examine dilemmas of identity in their work, turning their transmition especially to the Holocaust and the trends of both ongoing assimilation and cultural rediscovery exhibited by younger genera tions of American Jews. Arguably the most influential of all American- Jewish novels was Leon Uris hegira. Its story of the struggle to create the modern state of Israel translated into Russian became the inspirationfor hundreds of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel. Modern Jewish American novels a good deal contain (a few or many) Jewish characters and address issues and themes of importance to Jewish American society such as assimilation, Zionism/Israel, and Anti-Semitism, along with the recent phenomenon known as New Anti-Semitism. Two Jewish- American writers have won the Nobel Prize, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow. Bernard Malamud is considered one of the most prominent figures in Jewish American literature. BERNARD MALAMUD ( 1914-1986).Malamuds stories and novels, in which reality and fantasy argon frequently interfaced have been comp atomic number 18d to parables, myths and analogies and often illustrate the importance of moral obligation. Although he draws u pon his Jewish heritage to address the themes of sins, suffering, and redemption, Malamud emphasizes human contact and compassion over Orthodox religious dogma. Malamuds characters, while often awkward and isolated from society, evoke both pity and humor through their attempts at survival and salvation. Sheldon J.Hershinow observed come out of the everyday defeats and indignities of ordinary people, Malamud creates beautiful parables that capture the joy as well as the pain of disembodied spirit he expresses the dignity of the human spirit probing for freedom and moral growth in the face for hardship, injustice, and the existential anguish of life. BIOGRAPHY Malamud was born on April 28, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, to Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents, whom he described as gentle, honest, kindly people, were not highly educated and k newfound very little about literature of the blinds There were no scripts in the house, no records, music, pictures on the wall. Malamud att ended high school in Brooklyn and received his bachelors degree from the city College of New York in 1936. After graduation, he worked in a factory and as a clerk at the central bureau in Washington, D. C. Although he wrote in his spare time, Malamud did not begin writing seriously until the advent of the Second World War and the subsequent horrors of the Holocausts. He questioned his religious identity and started reading about Jewish tradition and history .He explained I was concerned with what Jews stood for, with their getting down to the barebones of things. I was concerned with their ethnically how Jews felt for they had to live order to go on living. In 1949, he began teaching at Oregan State University he left this post in 1961 to teach creative writing at Bennington College in Vermont. He remained at that place until shortly before his death in 1986.Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman com stick each semester at Oregon State University (OSU), an exp erience fictionalized in his 1961 novel A New Life. Because he lacked the Ph. D., he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years his rank was that of instructor. In those days, OSU, a land grant university, placed little emphasis on the teaching of humanities or the writing of fiction.While at OSU, he devoted 3 days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. In 1967, he was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 March 20, 2007), an Italian-American papistical Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective parents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952). Janna Malamud Smith is th e author of a memoir about her father, titled My set out is a contain. Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71. WORKS OF MALAMUD Malamuds first novel, The Natural (1952 ) ,is considered one of his most symbolic works .While the novel ostensibly traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an American baseball player , the work has underlying mythologic elements and explores such themes as initiation and isolation. For instance, some reviewers cited evidence of the Arthurian fable of the Holy Grail others applied T. S. Eliots wasteland myth in their analyses The Natural also foreshadows what would become Malamuds predominant narrative focus a suffering protagonist struggling to reconcile moral dilemmas, to act according to what is right, and to accept the complexities and hardships of existence.Malamuds second novel, The Assistant (1957), portrays the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling to survive financially, Bober hires a cynical anti-semitic youth, Frank Aloine after learning that the man is homeless and on the verge of starvation. Through this contact Frank learns to find grace and dignity in his own identity. Described as naturalistic fable, this novel affirms the redemptive take account of maintaining faith in the goodness of the human soul. Malamuds first collection of short stories, The Magic lay, (1958) was awarded the National Book award in 1959. handle The Assistant, most of the stories in this collection depict the search for hope and intend within the grim entrapment of poor urban settings and were influenced by Yiddish folktales and Hasidic traditions. some of Malamuds best known short stories, including The Last Mohican, Angel Levine, and Idiots First, were republished in The Stories of Bernard Malamud in 1983. A New Life (1961), considered one of Malamuds most true-to-life novels, is based in part on Malamuds teaching career at Oregon State University.This work focuses on a n ex-alcoholic Jew from New York City who becomes a professor at a college in the Pacific Northwest. It examines the main characters search for self-respect, while poking fun at life at a learning institution. Malamuds next novel, The Fixer (1966), is one of his most powerful works. The winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, this book is based on the historical account of Mendel Beiliss, a Russian Jew who was accused of murdering a Christian child.With The Tenants (1971), Malamud returns to a New York City setting in a contrast between two writersone Jewish and the other African Americanstruggling to survive in an urban ghetto. Malamud further addresses the nature of literature and the role of the artist in Dublins Lives (1979). In this work, the protagonist, William Dublin, attempts to create a sense of worth for himself, both as a man and as a writer. Malamuds last finished novel, Gods Grace (1982), studies both the original Holocaust and a new, imagined Ho locaust of the future.The novel is a wild, at times brilliant, at times confusing, description of a flood similar to that in the Bible story of Noahs ark. Malamud continued to place stories in return American magazines. Mervyn Rothstein reported in the New York Times that Malamud said at the end of his life, With me, its story, story, story. In Malamuds next-to-last collection, Rembrandts hat, only one story, The Silver Crown, deals with Jewish themes. Malamud is also renowned for his short stories, often oblique allegories set in a dreamlike urban ghetto of immigrant Jews.Of Malamud the short story writer, Flannery OConnor wrote I have discovered a short-story writer who is better than any of them, including myself. He published his first stories in 1943, Benefit Performance in Threshold and The Place Is Different Now in American Preface. In the early 1950s, his stories began appearing in Harpers Bazaar, Partisan Review, and Commentary. The Magic Barrel was his first published c ollection of short stories (1958) and his first winner of his first National Book Award for Fiction.Most of the stories depict the search for hope and meaning within the bleak enclosures of poor urban settings. The title story focuses on the unlikely relationship of Leo Finkle, an unmarried rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a colorful wedlock broker. Finkle has spent most of life with his nose buried in books and therefore isnt well-educated in life itself. However, Finkle has a greater interest the art of romance. He engages the services of Salzman, who shows Finkle a number of potential brides from his magic barrel but with each picture Finkle grows more uninterested.After Salzman convinces him to meet Lily Hirschorn, Finkle realizes his life is truly empty and lacking the passion to love God or humanity. When Finkle discovers a picture of Salzmans daughter and sees her suffering, he sets out on a new mission to save her. Other well-known stories included in the collection are The Last Mohican, Angel Levine, Idiots First, and The Mourners. This last story focuses on Kessler, the noncompliant old man in need of social security and Gruber, the belligerent landlord who doesnt want Kessler in the tenement anymore.Malamuds fiction touches lightly upon mythic elements and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values. His prose, like his settings, is an artful pastiche of Yiddish-English locutions, punctuated by sudden lyricism. Writing in the second half of the twentieth century, Malamud was well aware of the social problems of his day rootlessness, infidelity, abuse, divorce, and more. But he also depicted love as redemptive and sacrifice as uplifting.In his writings, victory often depends on cooperation between antagonists. For example, in The Mourners landlord and tenant learn from each others anguish. In The Magic Barrel, the matchmaker worries about his move daughter, while the daughter and the rabbi nic student are drawn together by their need for love and salvation. Malamuds third story Rembrandts Hat collection is noteworthy for its consistently pessimistic tone and theme of failed communication in stories such as My Son the Murderer, The Silver Crown, and The letter.The volume The People, and Uncollected Stories contains an unfinished novel about a Russian Jewish peddler in the American West who becomes a circulate and is kidnapped by Indians. It also includes fourteen stories written between 1943 and 1985. LIST OF OTHER NOTABLE JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS Aimee Bender novelist and short story writer, known for her often fantastic and surreal plots and characters Saul Bellow, novelist that won the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts Bernard Cooper, novelist, short story writer E. L.Doctorow, novelist Richard Ellmann, literary critic, won National Book Award for Nonfiction Barthold Fles, literary agent and non-fiction writer Emm a Goldman, anarchist writer Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22 Christopher Hitchens, literary critic and political activist Irving Howe, literary critic Roger Kahn. The Boys of summer 1972 Jerzy Kosinski, author of The Painted Bird Emma Lazarus, poet and novelist Fran Lebowitz, author, known for her sardonic social commentary on American life through her New York sensibilities Seymour Martin Lipset, political sociologist. Reggie Nadelson, novelist known curiously for her mystery works Mark Obama Ndesandjo, author, half-brother of President Barack Obama Cynthia Ozick, short story writer, novelist, and essayist Jodi Picoult, novelist Ayn Rand, novelist and founder of Objectivism Lea Bayers Rapp, non-fiction and childrens fiction writer Philip Roth, known for autobiographical fiction that explored Jewish and American identity. Norman Rosten, novelist J. D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye Gary Shteyngart (born 1972) Russian-born writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, leading figure in Yiddish literature, won Nobel Prize George Steiner (born 1929) literary critic Daniel Stern, novelist Leopold Tyrmand, writer Judith Viorst (born 1932) author, known for her childrens literature Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author of 57 books CONCLUSION The situation and the position of the Jewish-American writer have unceasingly been different from that of the other ethnicities in America and still remain so until today.One difference is highlighted by a comparison with the African-American writers. The marginal position of black authors has disappeared on the book market in the United States, but the themes of alienation and anger will not vanish as readily from their works. sooner of integration into the Literary and artistic mainstream, black writers and artists wanted, especially since the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, to arrive at their own forms of literary expression which would have direct relevance for their lives.They wished to answer the question of their relationship to white mainstream culture by implementing a multicultural strategy their literature is not that of assimilation, but in many ways that of establishing difference, separatism, and cultural resistance. While with the African-American writers there is no sense of the success or even desirability of social and cultural integration into the predominantly white mainstream of American society, many Jewish-American authors felt it as necessary and desirable, and as a result even managed to acquire it.Indeed, a great number of modern-day Jewish-American writers such as Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Bernard Malamud, Arthur Miller, Philip Roth and others have had literary success. The language employed by these writers is standard American English, they are socially accepted, and their works are read by a wide Jewish and non-Jewish audience. For this reason it is widely considered that their texts form part of a recognized literary canon, and belong to the American literary center or mainstream, as far as this may still be defined today.As much as we agreed to this idea we cannot dilute several facts which underline the necessity to view Jewish American literary productions as shaped by strong ethnic forces, and Jewish American literature as both belonging to and standing out in the multicultural American landscape. BIBLOGRAPHY Books Sanford, Sternlicht Masterpieces of Jewish American Literature Cristina, Nilsson Jewish American Literature Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick Websites http//en. wikipedia. org http//www. swiftpapers. com http// take in of Form.