Chaim Potok: Confronting Modernity Through the Lens of Tradition (Studies in American Jewish Literature) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271059818 ISBN 13: 9780271059815

Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Chaim Potok was a world-class writer and scholar, a Conservative Jew who wrote from and about his tradition and the conflicts between observance and acculturation. With a plain, straightforward style, his novels were set against the moral, spiritual, and intellectual currents of the twentieth century. This collection aims to widen the lens through which we read Chaim Potok and to establish him as an authentic American writer who created unforgettable characters forging American identities for themselves while retaining their Jewish nature. The essays illuminate the central struggle in Potok&;s novels, which results from a profound desire to reconcile the appeal of modernity with the pull of traditional Judaism. The volume includes a memoir by Adena Potok and ends with Chaim Potok&;s &;My Life as a Writer,&; a speech he gave at Penn State in 1982.

Aside from the editor, the contributors are Victoria Aarons, Nathan P. Devir, Jane Eisner, Susanne Klingenstein, S. Lillian Kremer, Jessica Lang, Sanford E. Marovitz, Kathryn McClymond, Hugh Nissenson, Adena Potok, and Jonathan Rosen.

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Walden is Professor Emeritus of American Studies, English, and Comparative Literature at The Pennsylvania State University. He founded the Jewish Studies Program at Penn State as well as the journal Studies in American Jewish Literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271059818
• ISBN 13: 9780271059815
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Walden Daniel