Ambivalent, Critical, Self-Divided: Perspectives on Jewish Self-Appraisal from Literature and Philosophy

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

While Jewish self-appraisal is a central, even urgent topic in current political and literary discourses, and while acculturation and the Haskalah have always provided fecund ground for study of the phenomenon, our panel seeks to understand the conditions and aesthetic representations of Jewish self-critique that is itself ambivalent; that is, what is sometimes referred to as “Jewish self-hatred” (one of the categories in Sol Goldberg’s proposed paper) is itself often subjected to a critical inward gaze, and sometimes poorly understood by others who seek to respond to (and critique) it. This panel draws on literary and philosophical considerations in English since the nineteenth century, and includes two literary scholars and one philosopher/religious studies scholar. Goldberg turns to philosophical debates to uncover the varying kinds of Jewish critique and the meaning of charges of self-betrayal. Karen Weisman proposes to highlight selected literary works from England and the U.S. that throw into relief the complicated dynamics of Jews responding to the putative criticisms of other Jews. She asks how such representations function as literature as well as critique. Michael Scrivener takes up the early nineteenth-century work of John “Jew” King and his daughters as his test cases; these were English Jews who found subtle ways of countering bias against Jews even as they engaged in idiosyncratic literary maneuvers to veil their Jewishness. This panel studies “double-consciousness” (a key term in the work of Du Bois) as well as self-consciousness and community-consciousness in addressing “the critical Jew.”

Sub Unit

• Modern Jewish Literature and Culture

Chair

• Kalman Weiser, York University, Center for Jewish Studies

Individual Presentations

• The Standing to Criticize: Loyal, Disloyal, and Unaffiliated Jewish Critics - Sol Goldberg, University of Toronto

• Jewish Double Consciousness: The Example of John “Jew” King and His Daughters - Michael Scrivener, Michael Scrivener

• “If there be aught to condemn”: Toward a Genealogy of Grievance in Anglo/American Jewish Authors - Karen Weisman, University of Toronto

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 10