ANTHR 3409 - Telling Jewish Stories

(crosslisted) ENGL 3909, JWST 3409
(ALC-AS, LA-AS)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

J. Boyarin.

Stories–whether orally told or written down in treasured texts, whether in Jewish languages or the languages of the myriad places where Jews have lived–are essential to the life of this age-old and ever-changing culture. We will read together widely, from Talmudic tales to modern Yiddish and Hebrew texts, twentieth-century American Jewish fiction, and beyond. We will consider what makes a story (not just a Jewish one) special. We will listen to the stories of the elders among us, and we will work at becoming better storytellers ourselves.