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Course Info for JWST - 223 - 01, Spring 2024
Class number: 2265 Title: American Jewish Lit Since 1865 Department: Jewish Studies
Career: Undergraduate Component: Lecture Session: Regular
Instructor's Permission Required: No Grading Basis: Regular Units: 1.00
Enrollment limited to 35 Current enrollment: 24 Available seats: 11
Start date: Monday, January 22, 2024 End date: Friday, May 10, 2024 Mode of Instruction: In Person
Schedule: TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM, SH - N217 Instructor(s): Steiner, Benjamin
Prerequisite(s): None
Distribution Requirement: Meets Humanities Requirement
Course Description:
This course begins with a question: How would one characterize or define the tradition of American Jewish literature since 1865 – the period following the Civil War that also necessarily accounts for the first and second world wars, the polio and AIDS crises in America, U.S. responses to the Holocaust, and ongoing questions about how to balance assimilation with maintaining one’s ethnic identity in U.S. cities large and small. Through close reading of the works of eight canonical American Jewish writers (two poets, two short story writers, two dramatist, and two novelists), we will consider such questions as: What makes these works Jewish? What makes these works American? What makes these works literary?