
Transferring to America
Jewish Interpretations of American Dreams
Rael Meyerowitz(Author)
State University of New York Press
Will be published approx. on 14. September 1995
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-7914-2607-4 (ISBN)
Description
Uses recent psychoanalytic theory to analyze the work of three contemporary scholars-Harold Bloom, Stanley Cavell, and Sacvan Bercovitch-while viewing their work as expressing Jewish immigrant desires for integration into American culture.
This book primarily concerns the work of three prominent literary scholars, Harold Bloom, Stanley Cavell, and Sacvan Bercovitch, treating them as second-generation immigrant Jewish Americans. With at least two meanings of "transferring" in mind, the title alludes both to the historical, socio-cultural actualities of immigrancy, and to the psychoanalytic model used to describe the relations between these readers and the American texts they interpret. The central claim is that the theories and critical practices of Bercovitch, Bloom, and Cavell can be considered as the tools and tactics of an ambivalent, not yet fully realized desire for integration into America. Their cultural identity as members of the Jewish minority in America can thus still be seen to operate as a compelling source of anxiety and motivation.
This book primarily concerns the work of three prominent literary scholars, Harold Bloom, Stanley Cavell, and Sacvan Bercovitch, treating them as second-generation immigrant Jewish Americans. With at least two meanings of "transferring" in mind, the title alludes both to the historical, socio-cultural actualities of immigrancy, and to the psychoanalytic model used to describe the relations between these readers and the American texts they interpret. The central claim is that the theories and critical practices of Bercovitch, Bloom, and Cavell can be considered as the tools and tactics of an ambivalent, not yet fully realized desire for integration into America. Their cultural identity as members of the Jewish minority in America can thus still be seen to operate as a compelling source of anxiety and motivation.
Reviews / Votes
"This book will fill a major gap in the history of American criticism and ethnic studies. It also concerns three widely read critics whose work has uninterrupted interest for the general critics writing today." - Sander L. Gilman, Cornell University"This book functions both as a general statement concerning the role and disposition of the American Jewish intellectual in the study of culture and as a nuanced perspective on different fields of academic endeavor as they are affected by the ethnic affiliations of the scholars in the field." - Emily Budick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7914-2607-4 (9780791426074)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rael Meyerowitz is Assistant Professor of Humanities in the College of General Studies at Boston University.
Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Tactics of Cultural Integration
Part One
1. Sources of Assistance: French Theory and Psychoanalysis
2. Prospects of Culture: Interpreting American Dreams
Part Two
3. Wrest(l)ing Authority: The Agonism of Harold Bloom
4. Finding Acknowledgment: The Inheritance of Stanley Cavell
5. Identifying Rhetorics: The Acculturation of Sacvan Bercovitch
Conclusion
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Tactics of Cultural Integration
Part One
1. Sources of Assistance: French Theory and Psychoanalysis
2. Prospects of Culture: Interpreting American Dreams
Part Two
3. Wrest(l)ing Authority: The Agonism of Harold Bloom
4. Finding Acknowledgment: The Inheritance of Stanley Cavell
5. Identifying Rhetorics: The Acculturation of Sacvan Bercovitch
Conclusion
Notes
Index