Exiles on Main Street Jewish American Writers and American Literary Culture
J u l i a n
Le Le v i n s o n
Exiles on Main Street
Jewish Literature and Culture Series Editor, Alvin H. Rosenfeld
Exiles on Main Street JEWISH AMERICAN WRITERS AND AMERICAN LITERARY CULTURE Julian Levinson
Indiana University Press bloomington and indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press 601 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA http://iupress.indiana.edu Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931 Orders by e-mail
[email protected] ∫ 2008 by Julian Levinson All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. m a n u fa c t u r e d i n t h e u n i t e d s tat e s o f a m e r i c a Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Levinson, Julian. Exiles on main street : Jewish American writers and American literary culture / Julian Levinson. p. cm. — (Jewish literature and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-253-35081-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. American literature—Jewish authors— History and criticism. 2. Jews—United States—Identity. 3. Group identity in literature. 4. Jews in literature. I. Title. PS153.J4L48 2008 810.9%8924—dc22 2007046930 1 2 3 4 5
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To Lisa
CONTENTS
acknowledgments
Introduction
ix
1
PART 1 breathing free in the new world: transcendentalism and the jewish soul
13
1 Songs of a Semite: Emma Lazarus and the Muse of History 2 Ecstasies of the Credulous: Mary Antin and the Spirit of the Shtetl 37
16
PART 2 b at t l i n g t h e n at i v i s t s : my s t i c s , p r o p h e t s , a n d r e b e l s i n i n t e r wa r a m e r i c a 53
3 ‘‘Pilgrim to a Forgotten Shrine’’: Ludwig Lewisohn and the Recovery of the Inner Jew 56 4 Modernist Flasks, Jewish Wine: Waldo Frank and the Immanence of God 76 5 Cinderella’s Dybbuk: Anzia Yezierska as the Voice of Generations 93 PART 3 yiddish interlude
119
6 From Heine to Whitman: The Yiddish Poets Come to America
[ vii ]
121
contents
PART 4 ‘‘ o r at i n g i n n e w yo r k e s e ’’ : t h e l a n g ua g e s o f j e w i s h n e s s i n p o s t wa r a m e r