Contemporary Jewish-American Fiction Book Group

Contemporary Jewish-American Fiction Book Group
* Four Tuesdays: May 14, June 11, July 9, and August 13, 5:00 pm – 6:30pm Pacific Time

There is a common historical narrative about Jewish American fiction: it had its “breakthrough” moment in the mid-twentieth century, when authors like Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, and Cynthia Ozick won mainstream recognition from the American literary establishment.

Though there were numerous writers working in the early part of the century–Abe Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Henry Roth–this class will trouble this historical narrative by moving us forward rather than backward.

In reading four novels published from the past seven years, we’ll ask: what makes a novel “contemporary,” “Jewish” or “American” today?

As we read fiction written by Jewish authors and fiction written by non-Jews about Jewish Americans, we’ll attend to this tradition’s most common themes–identity, assimilation, language, history. Yet, we’ll also grapple with how these texts unsettle this tradition, and us.

Books to be read:

May: Let There Be Light, by Liana Finck
June: Sonora, by Hannah Lillith Assadi
July: Kantika, by Elizabeth Graver
August: Pure Colour, by Sheila Heti