Research Catalog

Title

Memoria e desiderio : narratori ebrei d'America / Giordano De Biasio.

Author

De Biasio, Giordano.

Publication

Torino : UTET Libreria, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

262 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

Ch. 2 (p. 28-60), "Shylock in America", analyzes the negative image of the Jew in the "genteel tradition" of American and English literature at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the reaction of WASP writers faced with Jewish immigration. Shows that the Jew's image in American literature is an abstraction, an idea which evolved from the stereotype of sensual and exotic Jews to that of the greedy and ubiquitous Jew used as a scapegoat. Presents an array of anti-Jewish stereotypes in the writings of Mark Twain, Henry James, Henry Adams, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce (e.g. business superiority, unfair competition, demographic prolixity, corruption) expressing a nativist reaction to Jewish immigration. Relates especially to the biological antisemitism of T.S. Eliot who, influenced by Charles Maurras, called for racial and religious homogeneity against Jewish usurpation and expropriation, and to the pro-Nazi and fascist stance of Ezra Pound, who denounced Jews and usury.

Subject

• Geschichte 1890-1990
• American literature > Jewish authors > Criticism and interpretation

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-256)

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

8877502061

OCLC

• 32894878
• SCSB-10683148

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library