Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?: And Other Essays

by Adam Kirsch (Author)

• New

  Hardcover
  2019

  $21.50

  In this wide-ranging collection, Adam Kirsch, one of today's finest critics, brings together essays on poetry, religion, and the intersections between them, with a particular focus on Jewish literature. He explores the question of what defines Jewish literature, the relationship between poetry and politics, and the future of literary reputation in the age of the internet. Several essays look at the way individual Jewish writers like Stefan Zweig and Isaac Deutscher, who coined the phrase the non-Jewish Jew, have dealt with politics. Kirsch also examines questions of spirituality and morality in the writings of contemporary poets, including Christian Wiman, Kay Ryan, and Seamus Heaney. Other essays examine why many American Jewish writers have resisted that categorization, inviting us to consider Is there such a thing as Jewish literature?