Topics in American Literature
Kathryn Hellerstein profile
What makes a literature American? What are a writer's responsibilities? What is the meaning of translation? How do
religion, gender, and politics figure in an immigrant literature? The course will address these and other questions through Yiddish poetry and prose written in America during the past century by immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe. This case study of an ethnic literature that has retained its native tongue will enable us to investigate how a language and culture change when transplanted, and what happens to the individual writer who is "at home" in an exiled language. Authors include Isaac Bashevis Singer, Kadya Molodowsky, I.J. Schwartz, Moyshe-Leyb Halpern, Malka Heifetz Tussman, Abraham Cahan, Irving Howe, Hutchins Hapgood, Irena Klepfisz, Cynthia Ozick. Course requirements: a short essay (5-7 pp.), a longer essay (10-12 pp.), and a final exam. All readings will be in English.
updated 2006-11-06
