[On
June 1, 1916, Louis Brandeis was confirmed to the Supreme Court, becoming
the first
Jewish American Justice. So this week I’ll highlight the American stories
of Brandeis and four other exemplary Jewish Americans, leading up to a special
weekend tribute to one of our best Jewish Studies scholars!]
On humor,
gender, and Jewish American artists.
As I noted in this
2015 post (on Ann Basu’s wonderful scholarly book States
of Trial: Manhood in Philip Roth’s Post-War America), and as has
continued to be the
case in the years since, I’ve dedicated far more of my last decade or so of
scholarly attention to Philip Roth than I would have ever predicted would be
the case. There’s a lot I like about Roth’s writings, including to be sure his
investigations (through but not limited to a Jewish American lens) of many
of the historical and cultural questions that have come to define my own
AmericanStudies interests. But he’s also one of the funniest writers about whom
I’ve had the chance to write; many of my favorite American writers and works
tend to be understandably short on laughs, which is of course generally necessary
for their topics and themes but which is also ironic given my own love of all
things humorous (including, my sons would demand I mention, a notable penchant
for groan-inducing Dad Jokes).
As my 2017
class on Mark Twain illustrated with some frequency, though, humor doesn’t
always translate well across time periods and contexts. While I believe much of
Roth’s humor does still resonate successfully in our 2019 moment (anybody who’s
been or probably even just been around a teenage boy can testify to the
cringe-worthy accuracy of some of the obscenely over-the-top early chapters in Portnoy’s
Complaint [1969], for example), much of it also feels dated and
problematic. That’s particularly true for the ways Roth
depicts his female characters, from his hysterical (in both senses) Jewish
American mothers to the hysterical (ditto) Jewish American significant others to
the hysterical (samesies) shiksa love interests. His male characters and
protagonists are of course themselves far from immune to his humorous and
satirical lenses—but because they are generally his narrators (and almost
always his central perspectives), we still gain access to their layers and
nuances in a way that he frequently denies for his female characters. While
humor often depends on stereotypes, that’s always a fine and fraught line to
walk, and Roth too often crosses it to sexism
and misogyny when it comes to his depictions of women.
As usual, I
would advocate for an additive model when it comes to such complex questions.
That is, I think it’s still well worth reading Roth, both to critique him and
his works when necessary and for all the other reasons I’ve gestured at here
and elsewhere. But these problems with gender make it vitally important to
engage with Jewish American female artists (who have often taken a backseat to
Roth and his
male peers), from historical figures like Mary Antin and Anzia Yezierska (the
subjects of Wednesday’s post) up to contemporary voices. There’s no shortage of
wonderful such contemporary voices, but when it comes to Jewish American humor
I would highlight the work and perspective of the amazingly talented Sarah Silverman.
Silverman’s prolific career to date includes groundbreaking stand-up
comedy, an impressively diverse acting resumé
(her voice work for Wreck-It Ralph’s
Vanellope will make her an eternal favorite in this AmericanStudier’s
household), and most recently the political satire TV show I Love You, America. With that
latter work in particular Silverman has turned her comic lens on American
cultural and social questions just as potently and successfully as did Roth in
his best works, which both reveals the role of multimedia forms in 2019 and
reminds us of that every individual artist can and should be complemented with
the voices and works of other talented folks.
Next journey
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Other Jewish Americans you’d highlight?
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