04382nam 2200781Ia 450 991097108000332120200520144314.097866138955789781283583121128358312797802520921760252092171(CKB)2670000000240941(EBL)3413988(SSID)ssj0000710979(PQKBManifestationID)11400278(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000710979(PQKBWorkID)10672939(PQKB)11289161(OCoLC)1156422803(OCoLC)811409072(OCoLC)923494550(OCoLC)961559152(OCoLC)962691635(OCoLC)on1156422803(MdBmJHUP)muse23789(Au-PeEL)EBL3413988(CaPaEBR)ebr10593660(CaONFJC)MIL389557(OCoLC)923494550(MiAaPQ)EBC3413988(Perlego)2382233(EXLCZ)99267000000024094120080215d2008 ub 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrAmerican naturalism and the Jews Garland, Norris, Dreiser, Wharton, and Cather /Donald Pizer1st ed.Urbana University of Illinois Pressc20081 online resource (110 p.)Description based upon print version of record.9780252033438 0252033434 Includes bibliographical references (p. [77]-83) and index.""front cover""; ""Title Page""; ""Copyright Page""; ""Table of Contents""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""1. Hamlin Garland""; ""2. Frank Norris""; ""3. Theodore Dreiser""; ""4. Edith Wharton and Willa Cather""; ""Epilogue""; ""Notes""; ""Works Cited""; ""Index""; ""back cover""American Naturalism and the Jews examines the unabashed anti-Semitism of five notable American naturalist novelists otherwise known for their progressive social values. Hamlin Garland, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser all pushed for social improvements for the poor and oppressed, while Edith Wharton and Willa Cather both advanced the public status of women. But they all also expressed strong prejudices against the Jewish race and faith throughout their fiction, essays, letters, and other writings, producing a contradiction in American literary history that has stymied scholars and, until now, gone largely unexamined. In this breakthrough study, Donald Pizer confronts this disconcerting strain of anti-Semitism pervading American letters and culture, illustrating how easily prejudice can coexist with even the most progressive ideals. Pizer shows how these writers' racist impulses represented more than just personal biases, but resonated with larger social and ideological movements within American culture. Anti-Semitic sentiment motivated such various movements as the western farmers' populist revolt and the East Coast patricians' revulsion against immigration, both of which Pizer discusses here. This antagonism toward Jews and other non-Anglo-Saxon ethnicities intersected not only with these authors' social reform agendas but also with their literary method of representing the overpowering forces of heredity, social or natural environment, and savage instinct. American literature20th centuryHistory and criticismAmerican literature19th centuryHistory and criticismJews in literatureAntisemitism in literatureNaturalism in literatureAuthors, American20th centuryPolitical and social viewsAuthors, American19th centuryPolitical and social viewsAmerican literatureHistory and criticism.American literatureHistory and criticism.Jews in literature.Antisemitism in literature.Naturalism in literature.Authors, AmericanPolitical and social views.Authors, AmericanPolitical and social views.810.9/3529924073Pizer Donald551159MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910971080003321American naturalism and the Jews4354090UNINA