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The blessing and the curse : the Jewish people and their books in the twentieth century / Adam Kirsch.

by Kirsch, Adam, 1976- author.

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New York, NY : W. W. Norton & Company, [2020]

Jewish literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.

Judaism -- 20th century.

9780393652406 (hardcover) :

0393652408 (hardcover) :

xiv, 279 pages ; 25 cm

Introduction -- Europe: The future disappears. The Road into the Open by Arthur Schnitzler and The Trial by Franz Kafka -- Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel -- Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer -- The diary of Victor Klemperer -- The Diary of Anne Frank -- Night by Elie Wiesel -- Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi -- Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt -- America: At home in exile. The Rise of David Levinsky by Abraham Cahan -- Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska -- Stories by Delmore Schwartz and A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin -- The Adventures of Augie March and The Victim by Saul Bellow -- Stories by Bernard Malamud -- Goodbye, Columbus and Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth -- Stories by Grace Paley -- Stories by Cynthia Ozick -- Angels in America by Tony Kushner -- Israel: Life in a dream. Only Yesterday by S. Y. Agnon -- The Diary of Hannah Senesh -- Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar -- Where the Jackals Howl by Amos Oz -- See Under: Love by David Grossman -- Mr. Mani by A. B. Yehoshua -- Dolly City by Orly Castel-Bloom -- Poems by Yehuda Amichai -- Making Judaism modern. Three addresses on Judaism by Martin Buber -- Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism by Hermann Cohen -- Judaism as a Civilization by Mordecai Kaplan -- Halakhic Man by Joseph Soloveitchik -- God in search of man by Abraham Joshua Heschel -- To Mend the World by Emil Fackenheim -- Standing Again at Sinai by Judith Plaskow.

"An erudite and accessible survey of Jewish life and culture in the twentieth century, as reflected in seminal texts. Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times), formidable and perceptive literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the salient works of modern Jewish thought. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. This was true, also, of writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. Here Kirsch navigates four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reconfigure Judaism as a modern faith. Reading writers ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Anne Frank to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow, Kirsch's scope is wide and his observations diverse. Insightful and engaging, The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life"--

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