Description
Book SynopsisDean J. Franco explores the work of recent Jewish American writers, many of whom have taken unpopular stances on social issues, distancing themselves from the politics and public practice of multiculturalism.
Trade ReviewRace, Rights & Recognition comments on issues that were pressing in the 1960s, have remained so through the twentieth century, and will continue to be important in the future.... Franco presents invaluable persepectives in his analyses that preserve academic quality while remaining passionate and often personal in their tone. His book is not only thought provoking but also meticulously-structured and therefore suitable for both students well-versed in literary theory and scholars alike.
-- Attila Lénárt-Muszka * Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies *
Franco departs from prevailing literary scholarship interpreting Jewish writing within the parameters of Euro-American Jewish history and culture and also from standard multicultural rejectionism to analyze selected texts by Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Allegra Goodman, Lore Segal, Tony Kushner, and Gary Shteyngart through multicultural and postcolonial lenses.... Sensitive to the exclusion of Jewish American writers from multicultural curricula and criticism..., Franco moves beyond the dominant critical paradigms to persuasively argue for the inclusion of Jewish writers in American ethnic studies.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Politics and Ethics of Jewish American Literature and Criticism
Part I: Pluralism, Race, and Religion
1. Portnoy's Complaint: It's about Race, Not Sex (Even the Sex Is about Race)
2. Re-Reading Cynthia Ozick: Pluralism, Postmodernism, and the Multicultural Encounter
3. The New, New Pluralism: Religion, Community, and Secularity in Allegra Goodman’s Kaaterskill Falls
Part II: Recognition, Rights, and Responsibility
4. Recognition and Effacement in Lore Segal’s Her First American
5. Responsibility Unveiled: Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul
6. Globalization’s Complaint: Gary Shteyngart’s Absurdistan and the Culture of Culture
Epilogue: Less Absurdistan, More Boyle Heights
