AMH
3531
Tuesdays
10:40-11:30 and Thursdays 10:40-12:35
Keene-Flint
13
Professor
Mitchell Hart
Office
Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-3 pm., and by appointment
Office: Keene-Flint 20
Email:
hartm@ufl.edu
Office
phone: 392-0271 extension 236
__________________________________________________________
The
course explores the interaction of Jews with American culture, mainly in the
twentieth century. We will look at
how Jews engaged with American culture in order to integrate into American
society, and we will also examine how the very contours of American culture
were transformed because of this engagement. The course will introduce students to the main themes of
modern American Jewish history‹immigration, assimilation, secularization,
identity politics‹through discussions of culture, and especially through the
analyses of key short stories and novels, films and popular songs. The main theme that will be traced
through this course is the shifting comfort and discomfort Jews have felt in
the public representation of Jewishness, and the way in which such
representations both reflect and shape Jews¹ relationship to the United
States.
REQUIRED
TEXTS:
Abraham
Cahan, Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of Yiddish New
York
Philip
Roth, Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories
Philip
Roth, The Ghost Writer
Joyce
Antler (Editor), America and I : Short
Stories by American Jewish Women Writers
J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting
Hasia
R. Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000
These
texts can be purchased at Goering¹s Bookstore.
Course
Requirements:
Attendance
is required. More than three
unexcused absences and your final grade will be effected. There will be four assignments in this
course: one in-class midterm, an in-class final, and two take-home essays. The take-home essays will each be 5-7
pages in length.
The
in-class midterm and final will consist of identifications and essay
questions. The exams will test
your familiarity with the material covered in class lectures and discussions,
and the reading of the books by Diner and Hoberman/Shandler. The take-home essays will demand
that you read and discuss the books by Cahan, Roth, and the stories in the
volume by Antler, and write comparative essays. Material from lectures and non-fiction readings should also
help shape your writing of the essays.
THE
IN-CLASS MIDTERM WILL BE GIVEN ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17.
ESSAY
NUMBER ONE WILL BE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON TUESDAY, MARCH 1. NO LATE ESSAYS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
ESSAY
NUMBER TWO WILL BE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON TUESDAY MARCH 29. NO LATE ESSAYS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
THE
FINAL EXAM WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 FROM 3-5 PM.
Grading: The midterm will be worth approximately
20% of the final grade; the final exam will be worth 30% of the final grade;
each of the take home papers will be worth approximately 25% of the final
grade.
Grades
are based on a number of interconnected factors: mastery of assigned material, analytical skills, and writing
ability. Quality counts over
quantity; it is often more
difficult to write a good or great short essay than a longer one. To the extent that I can judge such
things, effort also counts. This
does not mean that you get credit just for showing up and doing the minimal
amount of work. Rather, it means
that you get some credit if your work conveys an investment of time and mental
energy on your part, even if the final product is not perfect.
PLEASE
NOTE: In writing papers,
be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words, phrases, ideas,
arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else¹s work. Do
not make the mistake of copying someone else¹s words and passing them off as
your own. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is
PLAGIARISM and is unacceptable. IF
YOU ARE CAUGHT PLAGIARIZING YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY FAIL THE CLASS AND MAY BE
PROSECUTED FURTHER.
Please review the University¹s honesty policy at
http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.htm.
Organization
of the Course: The lectures and discussions are
organized thematically. We will
spend as much time as necessary on a theme and then move on to the next. Classroom lectures will consist of a
combination of general historical background and focused analysis of a
particular example of culture (movies, songs, books, etc.)
The
reading assignments are designed to supplement these thematic discussions. If you attend class on a regular basis
you should have no trouble matching the readings to the lectures.
Fair
Warning: This is NOT a survey course of American Jewish
history. Nor is it a history of American Judaism. If you do the reading in the Diner book, you will come away
with a good introduction to the course of American Jewish history and American
Judaism, among many other things.
But these are not the focus of the lectures.
Introduction:
Studying American Jewish History
Reading
Assignment: Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United
States, pages 1-67
1. The New Promised Land: Mass Jewish Immigration in the 1880s
Film:
Almonds and Raisins
(90min)
Reading
Assignment: Diner, The
Jews of the United States,
pages 71-111
Abraham
Cahan, Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of Yiddish New
York
J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 11-33
2. The Anxiety of Assimilation
Film: The Jazz Singer (89min)
Reading
Assignment: Diner, The Jews of the United States, pages 112-202;
J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 45-99
Antler,
America and I, pages
1-56 and 72-82
3. The Promise and the Anxiety of
Culture
Film: A Night at the Opera (93 min)
Reading
Assignment: Diner, The
Jews of the United States,
pages 205-258
J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 151-203
4. At Home in America?
Film:
The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
Reading
Assignment: Philip Roth, ³Eli, the Fanatic² in Goodbye,
Columbus
Antler,
America and I, pages
113-164
5. American Jews and the State of Israel
Reading
Assignment: J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 205-219
6. The Comfort of Nostalgia and the
Suburbanization of the Jews
Film: Fiddler on the Roof
Reading
Assignment: Diner, The
Jews of the United States,
pages 259-304
Philip
Roth, ³Goodbye, Columbus,² in the collection Goodbye, Columbus.
7. Making and Remaking America: Jews and American Music
Reading
Assignment: Philip Roth, ³The Conversion of the
Jews,² and ³Defender of the Faith² in Goodbye, Columbus
8. Definitely At Home in America/ American
Jews and the Holocaust
Film:
The Producers
Reading
Assignment: Diner, The
Jews of the United States,
pages 305-358
J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 220-243
Antler,
America and I, pages
219-265, 281-289
9. Jewish Renewal in Contemporary America
Reading
Assignment: J.
Hoberman and Jeffrey Shandler, Entertaining
America : Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting, pages 244-279
Antler,
America and I, pages
290-339