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Jewish American Literature
Jewish American literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States. It encompasses traditions of writing in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish. While critics and authors generally acknowledge the notion of a distinctive corpus and practice of writing about Jewishness in America, many writers resist being pigeonholed as "Jewish voices." Also, many nominally Jewish writers cannot be considered representative of Jewish American literature, one example being Isaac Asimov. Modernism and speculative fiction are major focuses in post-Holocaust Jewish American literature. Beginnings 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 literature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also includes literature produced in languages other than English. The American Revolutionary Period (1775–1783) is notable for the political writings of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson. An early novel is William Hill Brown's '' The Power of Sympathy'', published in 1791. The writer and critic John Neal in the early-to-mid-19th century helped to advance America toward a unique literature and culture, by criticizing his predecessors, such as Washington Irving, for imitating their British counterparts and by influencing writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, who took American poetry and short fiction in new directions. Ralph Waldo Emerson pioneered the influential Transcendentalism movement; Henry David T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Call It Sleep
''Call It Sleep'' is a 1934 novel by Henry Roth. The book is about a young boy growing up in the Jewish immigrant ghetto of New York's Lower East Side in the early 20th century. Although it earned acclaim, the book sold poorly and was out of print for close to 30 years. It received a second life when it was reviewed by literary critic Irving Howe on the front page of ''The New York Times Book Review'' on October 25, 1964. Its paperback edition, published by Avon, sold over 1 million copies. The novel was included on ''Times 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. Synopsis ''Call It Sleep'' is the story of a Galician Jewish immigrant family in New York in the early part of the 20th century. Six-year-old David Schearl has a close and loving relationship with his mother Genya but his father Albert is aloof, resentful and angry toward his wife and son. David's development takes place between fear of his father's potential violence and the degradat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Cohen (writer)
Joshua Aaron Cohen (born September 6, 1980) is an American novelist and story writer, best known for his works ''Witz'' (2010), ''Book of Numbers'' (2015), and ''Moving Kings'' (2017). Cohen won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel '' The Netanyahus'' (2021). Life Cohen grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, spent his summers in Cape May, New Jersey and went to school at Trocki Hebrew Academy before transferring to Mainland Regional High School. He lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn. He reads both German and Hebrew and has translated works in both languages into English. He is married to Israeli journalist Lee Yaron. Work and career Cohen graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a degree in music composition in 2001. He does not have an MFA, and has expressed disdain for the degree, but has taught the course "Long Century, Short Novels" at Columbia University's School of the Arts's MFA program. In 2017, Granta Magazine named him to its decennial list of the Best Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayelet Waldman
Ayelet Waldman (; born December 11, 1964) is an Israeli-American novelist and essayist. She has written seven mystery novels in the series ''The Mommy-Track Mysteries'' and four other novels. She has also written autobiographical essays about motherhood. Waldman spent three years working as a federal public defender and her fiction draws on her experience as a lawyer. Biography Ayelet Waldman was born in Jerusalem. Her grandparents on both sides were Jewish immigrants to North America from Ukraine early in the 20th century.Wilensky, Sheila"Connections speaker is an engaging, witty chronicler of women's lives", ''Jewish Tucson'', February 12, 210. Retrieved August 27, 2010. Her father, Leonard, was from Montreal, Canada, but was living in Israel when he met her mother, Ricki. After they married, they moved to Jerusalem.Espinoza, Galin"Author, Author" ''People'', December 16, 2002. Retrieved August 25, 2010. After the Six-Day War in 1967, the family moved back to Montreal, then Rhod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, D.C., he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1984. He subsequently received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine. Chabon's first novel, ''The Mysteries of Pittsburgh'' (1988), was published when he was 24. He followed it with ''Wonder Boys'' (1995) and two short-story collections. In 2000, he published ''The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'', a novel that John Leonard (critic), John Leonard would later call Chabon's Masterpiece, magnum opus. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. His novel ''The Yiddish Policemen's Union'', an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Sidewise, Nebula Award, Nebula and Premio Ignotus, Ignot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (February 3, 1947 – April 30, 2024) was an American writer, novelist, memoirist, poet, and filmmaker. His notable works include '' The New York Trilogy'' (1987), '' Moon Palace'' (1989), '' The Music of Chance'' (1990), '' The Book of Illusions'' (2002), '' The Brooklyn Follies'' (2005), '' Invisible'' (2009), '' Sunset Park'' (2010), '' Winter Journal'' (2012), and '' 4 3 2 1'' (2017). His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. Early life Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey,Freeman, John"At home with Siri and Paul", '' The Jerusalem Post'', April 3, 2008. Retrieved September 19, 2008. "Like so many people in New York, both of them are spiritual refugees of a sort. Auster hails from Newark, New Jersey, and Hustvedt from Minnesota, where she was raised the daughter of a professor, among a clan of very tall siblings." son of Samuel Auster, a landlord who owned buildings with his brothers in Jersey City, and Queenie, née Bogat. His m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 million immigration to the United States, immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there; approximately 40% of Americans may be descended from these immigrants. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965 and is accessible to the public only by ferry. The north side of the island is a national museum of immigration, while the south side of the island, including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is open to the public through guided tours. The name derives from Samuel Ellis, a Welshman who bought the island in 1774. In the 19th century, Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson and later became a Magazine (artillery)#Naval magazines, naval magazine. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God in Judaism, God and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same books as Protestant Christianity's Old Testament, with some differences in order and content. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on naturalistic considerations, uninvolved with religion. It is most commonly thought of as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state and may be broadened to a similar position seeking to remove or to minimize the role of religion in any public sphere. Secularism may encapsulate anti-clericalism, atheism, naturalism, non-sectarianism, neutrality on topics of religion, or antireligion. Secularism is not necessarily antithetical to religion, but may be compatible with it. As a philosophy, secularism seeks to interpret life based on principles derived solely from the material world, without recourse to religion. It shifts the focus from religion towards "temporal" and material concerns. There are distinct traditions of secularism like the French, Turkish, American and Indian models. These differ greatly, from the American emphasis on avoiding an established religion and the freedom of bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophically and formally blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, for its "sensual, ingenious style" and for its provocative explorations of American identity. He first gained attention with the 1959 short story collection '' Goodbye, Columbus'', which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.Brauner (2005), pp. 43–47 Ten years later, he published the bestseller '' Portnoy's Complaint''. Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's literary alter ego, narrates several of his books. A fictionalized Roth narrates some of his others, such as the alternate history '' The Plot Against America''. Roth was one of the most honored American writers of his generation. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for '' The Counterlife,'' the PEN/Fau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaim Potok
Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American author, novelist, playwright, editor and rabbi. Of the more than a dozen novels he authored, his first book '' The Chosen'' (1967) was listed on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for 39 weeks and sold more than 3.4 million copies, and was adapted into a well-received 1981 feature film by the same title. Potok was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. Biography Herman Harold Potok was born in the Bronx, New York City, to Benjamin Max Potok (died 1958) and Mollie (; died 1985), Jewish immigrants from Poland. He was the oldest of four children, all of whom either became or married rabbis. His Hebrew name was Chaim Tzvi (חיים צבי). He received an Orthodox Jewish education. After reading Evelyn Waugh's novel '' Brideshead Revisited'' (1945) as a teenager, Potok decided to become a writer (he often said that ''Brideshead Revi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, '' The Natural'', was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel '' The Fixer'' (also filmed), about antisemitism in the Russian Empire, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Biography Bernard Malamud was born on April 26, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants who owned and operated a succession of grocery stores in the Williamsburg, Borough Park and Flatbush sections of the borough, culminating in the 1924 opening of a German-style delicatessen (specializing in "cheap canned goods, bread, vegetables, some cheese and cooked meats") at 1111 McDonald Avenue on the western fri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
