Significant contributions to American literary history have been made by Jewish Nobel Prize winners like Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elie Wiesel, Joseph Brodsky, Saul Bellow, and Bob Dylan. Other important Jewish American male writers include Bernard Malamud, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, and, like it or not, Phillip Roth. One could go on and on.
But where are the women? Female Jewish American writers have received far less attention than their male counterparts. Even notable authors like Gertrude Stein, Cynthia Ozick, Susan Sontag, and Nobel Prize winner Louise Glück have been marginalized by comparison.
Dissenting from the patrilineal narrative of Jewish American literary history, this anthology aims to reframe Jewish American literature by promoting the contributions of women. Preceded by an excellent introduction, the essays provide an overview of the subject from the early twentieth century to our present moment. They offer many different perspectives, weaving in scholarship on religion, literature, history, disability, gender, queer studies, and an analysis of reader reception. Different chapters focus not only on genres, forms, and identities, but also on narratives of assault, sexual violence, and loss.
Several prominent Jewish American writers, including Adrienne Rich and Erica Jong, are considered here. Especially insightful is Josh Lambert’s application of reader-response theory (which focuses on readers making different meanings at different times) to Jong’s Fear of Flying.
Some essays elevate marginalized Jewish writers like Annie Nathan Meyers, Susan Taubes, and Marian Spitzer. Although these chapters are convincing, such writers, whose names may be unfamiliar, need to be assessed on their own merits with unbiased analysis. This is not to disparage such writers, but to warn against lauding writers simply because they are Jewish women. We might also benefit by reclaiming writers who are already famous but not known for being Jewish. But these are quibbles.
Ever since the 1970s, we have been reconsidering and republishing neglected, out-of-print writing by British and American female authors. Matrilineal Dissent contributes to this larger effort, recognizing the literary contributions of Jewish American women. Although much work remains to be done in this realm of scholarship, this book starts a conversation that will no doubt influence Judaic studies and American literary history.
Deborah D. Rogers, PhD, is a professor of English at the University of Maine. She has written or edited seven scholarly books.
