Feeling Jewish: (A Book for Just about Anyone) (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300212440)

In this sparkling debut, a young critic offers an original, passionate, and erudite account of what it means to feel Jewish--even when you're not.

Self-hatred. Guilt. Resentment. Paranoia. Hysteria. Overbearing Mother-Love. In this witty, insightful, and poignant book, Devorah Baum delves into fiction, film, memoir, and psychoanalysis to present a dazzlingly original exploration of a series of feelings famously associated with modern Jews. Reflecting on why Jews have so often been depicted, both by others and by themselves, as prone to "negative" feelings, she queries how negative these feelings really are. And as the pace of globalization leaves countless people feeling more marginalized, uprooted, and existentially threatened, she argues that such "Jewish" feelings are becoming increasingly common to us all.

Ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Sarah Bernhardt to Woody Allen, Anne Frank to Nathan Englander, Feeling Jewish bridges the usual fault lines between left and right, insider and outsider, Jew and Gentile, and even Semite and anti-Semite, to offer an indispensable guide for our divisive times.

Author: Devorah Baum
ISBN-10: 0300212445
ISBN-13: 9780300212440
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/22/2017
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.80w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2017
Library Journal 08/01/2017 pg. 100