SOURCE: "The Faces of Women: An Introductory Essay," in Follow My Footprints: Changing Images of Women in American Jewish Fiction, edited by Sylvia Barack Fishman, University Press of New England, 1992, pp. 1-60.

In the following essay, Fishman explores the roles of Jewish-American women as the creators and subjects of fiction in the twentieth century.

Our Literature, Ourselves

Literature shapes and reflects popular conceptions of the nature and capacities of women, and the self-images of many contemporary American girls and women are influenced not only by changing political, social, and economic conditions but also by a lifetime of contact with literary portrayals of female characters. Such portrayals exist on many brow levels and are derived from diverse religious, cultural, folkloric, and mythic traditions. Many have been nurtured by images from ancient heritages, such as classical Greek and Latin myth and drama, and by narrative characters and allegorical women in...