The End of Exile: Jewish Identity and Its Diasporic Poetics

PMLA ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maeera Y. Shreiber
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Inclusive Language ◽  
English Bilingual

What is the location of Jewish identity? Cultural studies has provoked reexaminations of many long-standing tropes of ethnic and religious identity, including that of exile. Such inquiries have potentially explosive consequences for the already vexed notion of Jewish identity, especially in the context of an American experience. This essay means to trouble the relation between Jewish identity and the problematic marker of exile, within the contexts of cultural and postcolonial theory, drawing on the work of Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers, including Alain Finkielkraut, Daniel Boyarín, and Edward Said. This analysis allows for a sustained consideration of a diasporic poetics—an alternative aesthetic model for imagining community and the attendant terms of belonging. The experimental Yiddish-English bilingual verse of the contemporary poet Irena Klepfisz serves as a paradigmatic example of such a vision that challenges the familiar opposition between home and exile. Yiddish, a notoriously inclusive language and a by-product of the Diaspora, is central to her inquiries into the relation between individual and collective identities and into the role gender plays in the construction of such entities.

scholarly journals Pakistani-American Muslim women identity negotiation as reflected in diaspora literature

LEKSIKA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Nur Asiyah
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Identity Negotiation ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Diaspora Literature ◽  
Diasporic Literature ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
The World ◽  
Pakistani American

Identity is significant issue in the world. Pakistani-American Muslim women faced the problems of identity because they got different treatment in the society. This study reveals how do Pakistani-American Muslim women negotiate their identity and the result of negotiation? This research was done under descriptive qualitative research. The data of the research are the words, phrases, and sentences from diasporic literature entitled Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah that published in 2009.  To analyze the data, this study used postcolonial theory based on Bhabha’s hybridity and Tomey’s identity negotiation concept. Based on the research, it is found that Pakistan American Muslim women negotiate their identity by mindful negotiation namely adapting American culture and shaping hybrid identity. They change their fashion style by putting off their veils. They replace Arabic name into American style to hide their religious identity. In building the house they American building with Arabian nuance. On the other hand, in assimilating the culture to get a job, Pakistani American Muslim women must fight harder because of the striking differences in culture and the idealism they believe in.

scholarly journals Crescent on the Island of Gods, Traces of Islamic Village in Kusamba-Bali

Al-Albab ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Farninda Aditya
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The World ◽  
Cross Cultural Studies

I Gde Parimartha, Ida Bagus Gde Putra, Luh Pt.Kusuma Ririen. 2012. Bulan Sabit di Pulau Dewata, Jejak Kampung Islam Kusamba-Bali. Yogyakarta: Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) Graduate School, Gadjah Mada University YogyakartaBali, a beautiful island well known all over the world, fascinates many visitors from various countries and has a religious identity as its nickname reflects, the Island of the Gods. Although famous as a Hindu land, Bali has an Islamic Village, where Muslims can live side by side with Balinese Hindus. In view of the events of the Bali Bombing, in 2002 in Kuta and 2005 in Jimbaran, of course, there have been social and religious tensions between these two faiths. The tragedy has indeed left a change of attitude that is a strengthening of political identity of the Balinese-ness. This situation is presented in a book entitled, Bulan Sabit di Pulau Dewata, Jejak Kampung Islam Kusamba-Bali (Crescent on the Island of Gods, Traces of Islamic Village in Kusamba-Bali).

scholarly journals NASIONALISME DAN KEISLAMAN UNIVERSAL DALAM NOVEL MAWAKK IB AL-AHRR ARR KARYA NAJIB KYLANI

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-81
Author(s):  
Yulia Nasrul Latifi
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Interesting Point ◽  
Modern Novel ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
Cultural Colonialism ◽  
Power Concept

This article discusses an Egypt modern novel of Najib al-Kylani,Mawakib al-Ahrar, which tells about the struggle of Egyptians to get their independence from French colonization. One interesting point of this novel is the idea of critical and progressive nationalism. In contrast, postcolonial theory is focused on the aspects of nationalism using deconstruction methods. This theory is based on Edward Said argument on ‘East’ discourse through its orientalism as a product of science that has ideological basis and colonial interests. Their political and economic colonialism is accompanied by cultural colonialism through representing the East as ‘The Other’. Said developed his theory by using Foucault’s power concept and developed Derrida’s binary opposition. The progressive idea of this novel has a closed relationship with the universal values of Islam, characterized by inclusivity, egalitarianism, and democracy. Theologically and historically, Islam has taught the unity of human being and the need of plurality and differences of human beings, cultures, and nations to compete in good manner. Dialogical and mutual understanding of cultures is really important, not the exception between the West and the East cultures. Tulisan ini membahas novel modern Mesir yang berjudul Mawakib al-Ahrar karya Najib al-Kylani. Novel ini mengisahkan tentang perjuangan rakyat Mesir untuk mendapatkan kemerdekaan selama dalam penjajahanPerancis. Yang menarik dari novel ini adalah gagasan nasionalisme yang sangat kritis dan progresif. Sementara itu, teori poskolonial yang difokuskan pada aspek nasionalisme dengan memakai metode dekonstuksi. Teori ini didasarkan pada gugatan Edward Said tentang wacana ‘Timur’ melalui orientalismenya sebagai produksi ilmu pengetahuan yang memiliki landasan-landasan ideologis dan kepentingan-kepentingan kolonial. Penjajahan politik dan ekonomi mereka disertai pula penjajahan kultural berupa representasi Timur sebagai ‘Sang Lain’. Said mengembangkan teorinya dengan memakai konsep kekuasaan Foucault dan mengembangkangagasan oposisi biner Derrida. Gagasan novel yang progresif inimemiliki keterkaitan erat dengan nilai-nilai keislaman universal yang bercirikan inklusif, egaliter, dan demokratis. Secara teologis ataupun historis, Islam telah mengajarkan kesatuan manusia dan pentingnya pluralitas dan perbedaan manusia, budaya, dan bangsa untuk berlomba-lomba dalam kebaikan. Pemahaman budaya secara dialogis dan mutualistik sangat penting, termasuk budaya yang dialogis antara Barat dan Timur.

Creating Religious Identity: Rabbinic Interpretations of the Exodus

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59
Author(s):  
Günter Stemberger
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Active Force ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
Mount Sinai ◽  
As If ◽  
Babylonian Exile

Abstract:According to the rabbis, only those belong to Israel who have lived through the central events of biblical history, above all the Exodus and the Babylonian Exile. This is demonstrated on the basis of three texts, the Haggadah of Pesaḥ, the Mekhilta, and the interpretation of the Exodus story in the Babylonian Talmud Sotah. Every Jew is expected to re-enact these events in their own lives: “In every generation man is bound to look upon himself as if he had come forth from Egypt.” Converts may also opt into this history and consider themselves as if they, too, had stood on Mount Sinai. Biblical history remains an active force beyond the limits of time; the consciousness of this ever present history is part of the rabbinic understanding of one’s own present and thus essential for one’s Jewish identity.

A Dictionary of Critical Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Literary Theory ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Cultural Materialism ◽  
Internet Studies

Over 750 entriesThe most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of critical theory available, covering the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, cultural studies, gender studies, film studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, Internet studies, and sociopolitical critical theory. It explains complex theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism clearly and provides biographies of figures who have influenced the discipline, such as Deleuze and Foucault.This new edition has been updated to extend coverage of diaspora, race, and postcolonial theory, and of queer and sexuality studies, ensuring that it remains invaluable for students of literary and cultural studies and anyone studying a humanities subject requiring a knowledge of theory.

scholarly journals Imagining Exodus for Israel-Palestine: Reading the Secular and the Sacred, Diaspora and Homeland, in Edward Said and David Grossman

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Hartnell
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Divine Providence ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Cultural Affiliation ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Natural Target

This paper takes as its starting point Edward Said's distinction between 'religious' and 'secular' modes of cultural affiliation. As these simultaneously diverging and converging modes also trammel the particular grounds of thinking that have been Said's natural target of criticism - Zionism - his work speaks particularly powerfully to the debate surrounding the religious genealogy of Jewish identity. This paper argues that Said's interventions on Zionism highlight as problematic the position whereby the 'Ingathering of the Exiles' is promoted as coexisting with a 'diasporic consciousness' nurtured by Judaism during exile; messianic hopes of religious Jews cannot be reconciled with physical return to the Promised Land; identity circumscribed by ethnicity and place cannot stand in as exemplary for the exiled, unsettled and ultimately homeless identity trumpeted by discourses of the 'post', as many contemporary theorists would have it. And yet through an exploration of the writings of David Grossman, whose construction of Jewish identity is envisaged through the regulating, competing and collaborating tropes of Zionism and Diaspora, I argue that this position is crucial for the elaboration of Israeli identity. I also argue that in fact there is room within Said's thinking both for the anti-essentialist elaboration of 'homeless' identities as well as 'the permission to narrate' an identity politics, and that his own distinction between the 'secular' and the 'religious' begins to disassemble. I explore this blurring of the sacred and the secular through the prism of Exodus - as both concept and narrative. This paper suggests that it is precisely Said's achievement to embody these tensions between religion and its other, divine providence and human agency, historical materialism and postmodernism, alienation and its perennially tempting opposite: home.

Goddess Religion, Postmodern Jewish Feminism, and the Complexity of Alternative Religious Identities

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Raphael
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Feminist Discourse ◽  
Ideological Perspective

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that Jewish Goddess feminism illustrates the complexity of alternative religious identities and their fluid, ambiguous, and sometimes intimate historical, cultural, and religious connections to mainstream religious identities.1 While Jewish Goddess feminists find contemporary Judaism theologically and politically problematic, thealogy (feminist discourse on the Goddess and the divinity of femaleness) can offer them precisely the sacralization of female generativity that mainstream Judaism cannot. And yet the distinctions between present/former, alternative/mainstream religious identities are surely ambiguous where the celebration of the Goddess can at once reconstruct Jewish identity and deconstruct the notion of religious identity as a single or successive affiliation. It would seem that Jewish Goddess feminism epitomizes how late or postmodern religious identity may be plural and inclusive, shifting according to the subject's context and mood and according to the ideological perspective of the observer.

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