Syllabus
Introduction and overview: A people without a land. Storytelling as unity: Judaism and mankind by Martin Buber.
Storytelling as survival: Isaac Bashevis Singer. Making a future in stories part one: Saul Bellow.
Making a future in stories part two: Amos Oz. The problem of Tragedy: Arthur Miller.
Tragedy in conflict: Arthur Miller vs. Uri Lopolianski.
Nation and Diaspora, a historical view: Tony Judt. Whose land, whose exile, whose Shoah: Arthur Koestler and the nature of atrocity.
Conclusion and Overview: what do we learn from the story of the Jewish Diaspora?
Annotation
This course explores the rich literature of the Jewish communities of the English-speaking world. Readings will be drawn primarily from auto (or semi-auto) biographical sources, however some fiction will also be included.
Both readings and discussions will focus on the experience of the Jewish peoples, being a people in the world, and the value of that experience to their non-Jewish neighbors.