Title: The predicament of Jewish American poetry
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2007, vol. 33, iss. 1, pp. [127]-132
Extent
[127]-132
-
ISSN1211-1791
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/104438
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
The identity of the Jewish American writer has been often analysed through the prism of American fiction and nonfiction (ie genres which many Americanists consider to be the umbrella terms for all of Jewish American literature). Criticism of Jewish American poetry, especially its less orthodox proponents who have entered the canon of mainstream American literature, has been quite rare. This paper aims to analyse the presence of a distinctive Jewish identity in twentieth-century American poetry in English. After a brief historical overview, the poetics of several notable twentieth-century American poets of Jewish origin will be discussed using sample poems. The paper finally claims that Jewishness is an essential presence in the poetry of twentieth-century American poets of Jewish origin even if their work betrays more eclectic influences.
References
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[2] Bleich, David (2000) 'Learning, Learning, Learning: Jewish Poetry in America'. In: Barron, Jonathan and Selinger, Eric (eds) Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary and Reflections. Hanover, NH: U of New England P, 177–93.
[3] Bloom, Harold (1972) 'The Sorrows of American-Jewish Poetry'. Commentary 53.3: 69–74.
[4] Chametzky, Jules, John Felstiner, Hilene Flanzbaum, and Kathryn Hellerstein (eds) (2001) Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. New York: Norton.
[5] Chapman, Abraham (ed.) (1974) Jewish-American Literature: An Anthology of Fiction, Poetry, Autobiography, and Criticism. New York: New American Library.
[6] Goldstein, Laurence (2002) 'Arguing (What Else?) About Jewish-American Poetry'. Michigan Quarterly Review 41: 701–20.
[7] Hollander, John (1994) 'The Question of American Jewish Poetry'. In: Wirth-Nesher, Hana (ed.) What Is Jewish Literature? Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 36–52.
[8] Ignatow, David (1968) Rescue the Dead. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP.
[9] Kunitz, Stanley (1995) Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected. New York: Norton.
[10] Osherow, Jacqueline (2001) 'Ch'vil Schreibn a Poem auf Yiddish'. In: Chametzky, Jules, Felstiner, John, Flanzbaum, Hilene and Hellerstein, Kathryn (eds) Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology. New York: Norton, 1132.
[11] Reznikoff, Charles (1989) Poems 1918–1975: The Complete poems of Charles Reznikoff. Ed. Seamus Cooney. Santa Rosa, CA : Black Sparrow.
[12] Rothstein, Edward (2001) 'A Jewish Canon, Yes, But Not Set in Stone'. New York Times 24 Feb. 2001: A15+.
[13] Rubin, Steven J. (2000) 'Poets of the Promised Land, 1800–1920'. In: Barron, Jonathan and Selinger, Eric (eds) Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary and Reflections. Hanover, NH: U of New England P, 197–215.
[14] Rukeyser, Muriel (1978) The Collected Poems. New York: McGraw-Hill.
[15] Shreiber, Maeera Y. (2003) 'Jewish American Poetry'. In: Wirth-Nesher, Hana and Kramer, Michael P. (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Jewish American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 149–69.
[16] Stern, Gerald (1998) This Time: New and Selected Poems. New York: Norton.