Jewish Latin American Literature

A detailed, in-depth exploration of the central themes, motives, context, and authors of modern Jewish Latin American literature, analyzing not only how Jews look at themselves but how they are perceived by the environment and from abroad. Antisemitism, immigration, individual and collective exploration, feminism, Israel, and the Holocaust, among other topics, will be included. Principal writers studied are Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, and Moacyr Scliar, as well as Sholem Aleichem, Pablo Neruda, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Required Reading:

The Seventh Heaven: Travels Through Jewish Latin America
This book will be available for purchase on the first day of class.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Cultures at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, host of NPR’s podcast In Contrast, and a regular contributor to the New York Times en Español. An international bestselling author, his books include On Borrowed Words (2000), Spanglish (2002), Dictionary Days (2010), and Quixote (2015). Among his graphic novels are Latino USA: A Cartoon History (2000), El Iluminado (2012), Angelitos (2017), and an adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha (2018). He is the editor of, among others, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998), The Schocken Book of Sephardic Literature (2008), Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2011), Becoming Americans (2013), and Oy Caramba!: An Anthology of Jewish Stories from Latin America (2017). His work, adapted into theater, TV, film, and radio, has been translated into twenty languages.

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