Jewish American Literature

The field of Jewish American literature as an area of academic study began to take shape in the twentieth century. Literary scholars who study the work of Jewish writers have focused more on the careers of playwrights such as Arthur Miller and novelists such as J. D. Salinger (whose father was Jewish), Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth. To a more limited extent, poets (most notably, Allen Ginsberg and Karl Shapiro) have received a degree of critical and scholarly attention in this field. There is no doubt that the contributions of Jewish writers have shaped American literature in important ways. Among the best-known writers are Woody Allen, Isaac Asimov, Paul Auster, Judy Blume, Betty Friedan, Joseph Heller, E. L. Doctorow, and Harold Bloom.

Many scholars of Jewish American literature examine questions of Jewish identity as it pertains to living in America and look at...