Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture
This scholarly study explores the conflicting forces of assimilation and cultural heritage in literary portrayals of Jewish American identity.

In Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture Judith Ruderman takes on the fraught question of who passes for Jewish in American literature and culture. In today’s contemporary political climate, religious and racial identities are being reconceived as responses to culture and environment, rather than essential qualities. Many Jews continue to hold conflicting ideas about their identity?seeking deep engagement with Jewish history and the experiences of the Jewish people while holding steadfastly to the understanding that identity is fluid and multivalent.

Looking at carefully chosen texts from American literature, Ruderman elaborates on the strategies Jews have used to “pass” from the late nineteenth century to the present?nose jobs, renaming, clothing changes, religious and racial reclassification, and even playing baseball. While traversing racial and religious identities has always been a feature of America’s nation of immigrants, Ruderman shows how the complexities of identity formation and deformation are critically relevant during this important cultural moment.
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Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture
This scholarly study explores the conflicting forces of assimilation and cultural heritage in literary portrayals of Jewish American identity.

In Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture Judith Ruderman takes on the fraught question of who passes for Jewish in American literature and culture. In today’s contemporary political climate, religious and racial identities are being reconceived as responses to culture and environment, rather than essential qualities. Many Jews continue to hold conflicting ideas about their identity?seeking deep engagement with Jewish history and the experiences of the Jewish people while holding steadfastly to the understanding that identity is fluid and multivalent.

Looking at carefully chosen texts from American literature, Ruderman elaborates on the strategies Jews have used to “pass” from the late nineteenth century to the present?nose jobs, renaming, clothing changes, religious and racial reclassification, and even playing baseball. While traversing racial and religious identities has always been a feature of America’s nation of immigrants, Ruderman shows how the complexities of identity formation and deformation are critically relevant during this important cultural moment.
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Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture

Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture

by Judith Ruderman
Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture

Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture

by Judith Ruderman

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Overview

This scholarly study explores the conflicting forces of assimilation and cultural heritage in literary portrayals of Jewish American identity.

In Passing Fancies in Jewish American Literature and Culture Judith Ruderman takes on the fraught question of who passes for Jewish in American literature and culture. In today’s contemporary political climate, religious and racial identities are being reconceived as responses to culture and environment, rather than essential qualities. Many Jews continue to hold conflicting ideas about their identity?seeking deep engagement with Jewish history and the experiences of the Jewish people while holding steadfastly to the understanding that identity is fluid and multivalent.

Looking at carefully chosen texts from American literature, Ruderman elaborates on the strategies Jews have used to “pass” from the late nineteenth century to the present?nose jobs, renaming, clothing changes, religious and racial reclassification, and even playing baseball. While traversing racial and religious identities has always been a feature of America’s nation of immigrants, Ruderman shows how the complexities of identity formation and deformation are critically relevant during this important cultural moment.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780253036971
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication date: 12/22/2021
Series: Jewish Literature and Culture
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 261
File size: 794 KB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Judith Ruderman is Visiting Scholar of English at Duke University. She is the winner of the 2017 Harry T. Moore Award for lifetime contributions to D. H. Lawrence studies and author of four previous books, including Race and Identity in D. H. Lawrence: Indians, Gypsies, and Jews.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments


Chapter One: Jews and Their Complex Identities: "O Brave New World, That has Such People In't!"


Chapter Two: The "Jewish Nose" and the Nose Job in Nathan Englander's The Ministry of Special Cases: "The Most Unkindest Cut of All"


Chapter Three: Jewish American Women and the Nose Job: "God Hath Given You One


Face, and You Make Yourself Another"


Chapter Four: Renaming as a Strategy for Passing in Thyra Samter Winslow's "A Cycle of Manhattan": "A Ros[s] by Any Other Name"


Chapter Five: Renaming and Reclaiming: "To Thine Own Self be True"


Chapter Six: Jews and Gentiles Becoming the Other: "Neither a Borrower nor a Lender be"


Chapter Seven: Racial Crossings Between Jews and Blacks: "That You Might See Your Shadow"


Chapter Eight: The Use of Clothing in Passing Narratives: "The Fashion Wears out More Apparel than the Man"


Chapter Nine: In Search of an "Authentic" Jewish American Identity: "Who is it Who Can Tell me Who I am?"


Works Cited


Index

What People are Saying About This

"

The recent attacks on minority identities have revived older, anti-Semitic stereotypes. The concomitant construction of 'white' identity (a construction which excludes Jews) and its alliance with political power makes Judith Ruderman's work particularly relevant. Until recently, we might have assumed that the place of Jews in American society was resolved, but I dare say this is no longer the case.

"

Diane Sasson

The recent attacks on minority identities have revived older, anti-Semitic stereotypes. The concomitant construction of 'white' identity (a construction which excludes Jews) and its alliance with political power makes Judith Ruderman's work particularly relevant. Until recently, we might have assumed that the place of Jews in American society was resolved, but I dare say this is no longer the case.

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