IMAGINING EACH OTHER Blacks and Jews in Contemporary American Literature Ethan Goffman Explores the complex ways in which Blacks and

IMAGINING EACH OTHER
Blacks and Jews in Contemporary American Literature
Ethan Goffman

Explores the complex ways in which Blacks and Jews have portrayed each other in recent American literature.

Imagining Each Other explores Black-Jewish relations by examining the complex ways the two peoples have portrayed each other in recent American literature. It illuminates dramatic alliances and conflicts and dilemmas of identity and assimilation, and addresses the persistent questions of ethnic division and economic inequality that have so encompassed the Black-Jewish narrative in America. Focusing primarily on the 1960s and its aftermath, the book reveals how Jewish and African Americans view each other through a complex dialectic of identification and difference, channeled by ever-shifting positions within American society. Through the works of Richard Wright, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Amiri Baraka, Paule Marshall, Grace Paley, and others, Goffman unfolds a story of two peoples with powerful biblical and mythic connections that replay themselves in contemporary circumstances. In doing so, he uncovers layers of meaning in works that dramatize this turbulent, paradoxical relationship, and reveals how this relationship is paradigmatic of multicultural American self-invention.

"Ethan Goffman's book is a welcome--and necessary--addition to the comparative study of African American and Jewish American cultures. Patient, empathetic, and elegantly written, it should dramatically enhance our ability to make meaning of this challenging and rich encounter between proud and accomplished communities." -- James C. Hall, editor of Approaches to Teaching Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"This book is very comprehensive, dealing with works by canonical and lesser-known authors, and putting them all within a relatively detailed historical and social context. It is sensitive to the dialectical relationship of literary representation to events in the real world. And it is balanced and judicious in its treatment of an extremely volatile topic, a topic of the utmost importance not merely to readers, but to all who seek a deeper understanding of minority relations in modern America." -- Norman Finkelstein, author of The Ritual of New Creation

Ethan Goffman is Lecturer in English at Purdue University.

A volume in the SUNY series,
Modern Jewish Literature and Culture
Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor

September 2000 288 pages
paperback ISBN 0-7914-4678-6
hardcover ISBN 0-7914-4677-8

State University of New York Press
90 State Street, Suite 700
Albany, NY 12207

For Current Prices and Ordering Information See Order Form

BACK TO HOMEPAGE