Ezra Mendelsohn 
Studies in Contemporary Jewry [PDF ebook] 
Volume XII: Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts

Literary Strategies: Jewish Texts and Contexts collects essays on Jewish literature which deal with "the manifold ways that literary texts reveal their authors’ attitudes toward their own Jewish identity and toward diverse aspects of the ‘Jewish question.’" Essays in this volume explore the tension between Israeli and Diaspora identities, and between those who write in Hebrew or Yiddish and those who write in other "non-Jewish" languages. The essays also explore the question of how Jewish writers remember history in their "search for a useable past." From essays on Jabotinsky’s virtually unknown plays to Philip Roth’s novels, this book provides a strong overview of contemporary themes in Jewish literary studies.