THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS AND OTHER ESSAYS

THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS AND OTHER ESSAYS

The Conversion of the J e"ws and Other Essays MARK SHECHNER Professor of English State University of New York Palgrave Macmillan

ISBN 978-1-349-21022-0 ISBN 978-1-349-21020-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21020-6 Mark Shechner 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1990 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 First published in the United States of America in 1990 ISBN 978-0-312-04619-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shechner, Mark The conversion of the Jews and other essays / Mark Shechner p. em. ISBN 978-0-312-04619-4 1. American literature - Jewish authors - History and criticism 2. Jews - United States - Inte1lectuallife I. Title. PS153.J4S49 1990 810.9'8924 - dc20 89-29460 CIP

To Anne and Sarah

Contents Acknowledgments and Notes for Contents The Conversion of the Jews Isaac Rosenfeld's Passage Saul Bellow and Ghetto Cosmopolitanism Jewish Comedy and the Contradictions of Culture The Survival of Allen Ginsberg Bernard Malamud, or the Return of the Repressed Malamud: The Still, Sad Music A Portrait of Delmore Zuckerman's Travels Where's Papa? The Truants The Gates of Eden Elusive Trilling Criticism and Culture In Defense of the Imagination The Partisan Ambition and the American Scholar Three Honest Men An American Procession The Last Trotskyist Index viii 1 17 31 43 60 70 77 85 91 104 115 121 134 146 151 156 165 174 178 186 200 vii

Acknowledgments and Notes for Contents Earlier versions of these essays appeared in Partisan Review, Salmagundi, Nation, New Republic, New Review, American Literary History, and Modern Jewish Studies Annual. "Jewish Comedy and the Contradictions of Culture" appeared in Jewish Wry: Essays in Jewish Humor, edited by Sarah Blacher Cohen, Indiana University Press, 1987, and "Isaac Rosenfeld's Passage" was first published as the introduction to the reprint of Isaac Rosenfeld's novel Passage from Home, Markus Wiener Books, 1988. My gratitude to all editors and publishers for their gracious permission to reprint these essays in this volume. More detailed information on the essays is given below: "The Conversion of the Jews." An earlier version of this essay was delivered as a talk before the Association for Jewish Studies in Boston, Decemberr 1986. "Isaac Rosenfeld's Passage." Introduction to the reprint of Isaac Rosenfeld's novel Passage from Home (New York: Markus Wiener Books, 1988). "Saul Bellow and Ghetto Cosmopolitanism." First appeared in Modern Jewish Studies Annual, 2 (Winter, 1979). Revised and reprinted in P. Shiv Kumar (ed.), Saul Bellow: A Symposium on the Jewish Heritage (Warangal, India: Nachson Books, 1983). "Jewish Comedy and the Contradictions of Culture." Appeared in Jewish Wry: Essays in Jewish Humor, edited by Sarah Blacher Cohen (Bloommgton: Indiana University Press, 1987). "The Survival of Alan Ginsberg." Review of Ginsberg's Mind Breaths: Poems 1972-1977; Ginsberg, Journals: Early Fifties, Early Sixties, ed., Gordon Ball; As Ever: The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady, ed., Barry Gifford. Partisan Review, 46:1 (1979). Reprinted in On the Poetry of Allen Ginsberg, edited by Lewis Hyde (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1984). "Bernard Malamud, or the Return of the Repressed." Review of viii

ix Acknowledgments and Notes for Contents Bernard Malamud, Dubin's Lives. Nation, 228:10 (17 March 1979). "Malamud: The Still, Sad Music." Review of Bernard Malamud, The Stories of Bernard Malamud. Partisan Review, 51:3 (1984). Reprinted in Critical Essays on Bernard Malamud, edited by Joel Salzberg (New York: G. K. Hall, 1987). "A Portrait of Delmore." Review of Portrait of Delmore: Journals and Notes of Delmore Schwartz. Edited and introduced by Elizabeth Pollett. Partisan Review, 54:3 (Summer, 1987). ''Where's Papa." Review of Ernest Hemingway, Selected Letters: 1917-1961. Partisan Review, 49:2 (1982). "The Truants." Review of William Barrett, The Truants: Adventures Among the Intellectuals. Nation, 234:8 (27 February 1982). "Gates of Eden." Review of Morris Dickstein, Gates of Eden. The New Review (London), 41:4 (August, 1977). "Elusive Trilling." Part I, Nation, 225:8 (17 September 1977). Part II, Nation, 225:9 (24 September 1977). "Criticism and Culture." Review of Mark Krupnick, Lionel Trilling and the Fate of Cultural Criticism. Nation, 242:21 (31 May 1986). "In Defense of the Imagination." Review of Robert Alter, Defenses of the Imagination: Jewish Writers and Modern Historical Crisis. Nation, 226:18 (13 May 1978). "The Partisan." Review of Philip Rahv, Essays on Literature and Politics, 1932-1972, edited by Arabel Porter and Andrew Dvosin, and Images and Ideas in American Culture: The Function of Criticism. Essays in Memory of Philip Rahv. Nation, 227:16 (11 November 1978), and 227:17 (18 November 1978). "Ambition and the American Scholar." Review of Joseph Epstein, Ambition. Nation, 232:2 (17 January 1981). "Three Honest Men." Review of Philip French (ed.), Three Honest Men: Edmund Wilson, F. R. Leavis, Lionel Trilling. New Republic, 186:7 (17 February 1982). "An American Procession." Review of Alfred Kazin, An American Procession. Nation, 238:24 (23 June 1984). "The Last Trotskyist." Review of Alan Wald, The New York Intellectuals. Salmagundi (Winter, 1988).