Time Schedule:
Joseph M Butwin
ENGL 312
Seattle Campus
A study of Jewish literature from Biblical narrative and rabbinic commentary to modern prose and poetry with intervening texts primarily organized around major themes: martyrdom and suffering, destruction and exile, messianism, Hasidism and Enlightenment, Yiddishism and Zionism. Various critical approaches; geographic and historic contexts. Offered: jointly with JSIS C 312.
Class description
For WINTER 2004: For simplicity’s sake let’s call this 3000 years in ten weeks. In order to reduce that already vast reduction to a few words I will list the headings of sections of the course: Jewish Literature as Jewish History; Biblical Narrative; Martyrdom and Suffering; Destruction and Exile; Exile and Yearning; Messiah and the End of Days; Hasidism and Enlightenment; Zion rejects Exile; Exile in the New World; and a section on modern apocalyptic visions of the 1930s and 1940s. In this mammoth and, I hope, exhilarating task, we will see how a common culture coheres over time and how writers are obliged by the conditions of the world to depart from that coherence. All readings in a course packet; lecture, discussion and short essays.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
