Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary, and Reflections

Front Cover
Jonathan N. Barron, Eric Murphy Selinger
University Press of New England, 2000 - American poetry - 344 pages
From Emma Lazarus to Allen Ginsberg, Jewish American poets have long been a presence in American poetry. Once a group of isolated voices, their number and range has grown in the last 50 years to reveal a distinct American poetic tradition. The first complete guide to the diversity and vitality of this tradition, Jewish American Poetry features poems by 26 leading poets (some written especially for this volume) followed by the poets' own reflections on the Jewish and American aspects of their work.

The second half of the book gathers ten wide-ranging essays on the history and scope of Jewish American poetry, offering an unprecedented introduction to its Yiddish and Sephardic heritage, its distinctive poetics of commentary, its Kabbalists, its feminists, and more. With a general introduction that places this literature in the contexts of both Jewish culture and American poetry, Jewish American Poetry opens the door to a much-needed discussion of the significance of the Jewish voice in American literature.

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Contents

Charles Bernstein Solidarity Is the Name We Give to What
33
SelfReflection
48
Marcia Falk Winter Solstice
58
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

JUDITH R. BASKIN is Director of the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. She is author of Pharaoh's Counsellors (1983) and editor of Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Second edition, 1998) and Women of the Word: Jewish Women and Jewish Writing (1994).

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