ENGL 259
Ethics of Jewish American Fiction Spring 2014
Division I Writing Skills
Cross-listed REL 259 / JWST 259
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

After the Second World War, Jewish American writers who wrote about Jewish characters and Jewish themes were increasingly celebrated as central figures in American fiction. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth are among those who gained prominence in this period. These writers were literary innovators and often addressed broad humanistic themes, but they also struggled with profound questions that arose in the postwar period about Jewishness, the legacy of the Holocaust, and what it means to be an American. In this course we will read the above authors and others. We will focus, in particular, on the distinctive ethical and political ideas, emotions, and aspirations that animate their work. The course will begin with a study of theoretical approaches that will provide the basis for our ethical criticism: we will read, for instance, Lionel Trilling, Wayne Booth, Martha Nussbaum, and Noël Carroll. Then we will delve into the fiction, following a trail that begins in the postwar period and continues in fictions by Cynthia Ozick, Erica Jong, Rebecca Goldstein, Michael Chabon, Gary Shteyngart, and others. Can we find a distinctive Jewish American ethics in Jewish American fiction?
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 18
Class#: 3583
Grading: OPG
Requirements/Evaluation: one take-home exam on theoretical approaches to ethical criticism; five 5-page essays (one of which will be a slightly longer re-write)
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Religion majors, Jewish Studies concentrators, and English majors
Distributions: Division I Writing Skills
Notes: meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under REL or JWST; meets Division 1 requirement is registration is under ENGL
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ENGL 259 Division I REL 259 Division II JWST 259 Division II
Attributes: JWST Core Electives

Class Grid

Course Catalog Archive Search

TERM/YEAR
TEACHING MODE
SUBJECT
DIVISION



DISTRIBUTION



ENROLLMENT LIMIT
COURSE TYPE
Start Time
End Time
Day(s)