Memory and Neighborhood: Poles and Poland in Jewish American Fiction after World War Two

The book is a study of references to Poles, Poland and Polishness in Jewish-American fiction created after World War II. The analysis of seventy novels by Jewish-American writers of several generations reveals portrayals of Poles as secondary or unimportant characters, either in the Old World or in the new American environment.

“«This extremely wide-ranging and thorough study considers the subject above from a wide variety of perspectives, including portraits of Poles and Polish Americans in literature of the period, the role of Poland in Jewish American collective memory as portrayed in such literature, and ways in which famous Poles and artifacts from Poland have been depicted from a literary point of view in the United States.» Aleksandrowicz-Pędich's book is an extremely well-nuanced and useful scholarly compendium certain to be well-noted in the international Jewish Studies realm, where the authenticity of second- and third-generation portrayals of Poles and Poland goes little questioned, as well as in Polish academic circles, where it should debunk the increasingly popular, and certainly painful, belief that Poles and Poland are uniformly mis-portrayed in Jewish literature.» (From the review by Professor S.I. Salamensky, 'University of California, Los Angeles'). «Das Buch sei allen empfohlen, die sich für amerikanische Literatur und polnisch-jüdische Beziehungen interessieren und offen dafür sind, ihre Vorstellungen von »Polen« und »den Polen« kritisch zu hinterfragen.» (Katrin Stoll, Einsicht 11, 2014)”

«Memory and Neighborhood is a valuable piece of literary scholarship and one that, if employed with good will on all sides, will foster an improved Polish-Jewish dialogue and the recovery of better understanding and respect between Poles, Jews and Polish Americans.»
(Thomas J. Napierkowski, Polish American Studies Vol.75 No.2/2018)

«This extremely wide-ranging and thorough study considers the subject above from a wide variety of perspectives, including portraits of Poles and Polish Americans in literature of the period, the role of Poland in Jewish American collective memory as portrayed in such literature, and ways in which famous Poles and artifacts from Poland have been depicted from a literary point of view in the United States.»
Aleksandrowicz-Pędich’s book is an extremely well-nuanced and useful scholarly compendium certain to be well-noted in the international Jewish Studies realm, where the authenticity of second- and third-generation portrayals of Poles and Poland goes little questioned, as well as in Polish academic circles, where it should debunk the increasingly popular, and certainly painful, belief that Poles and Poland are uniformly mis-portrayed in Jewish literature.» (From the review by Professor S.I. Salamensky, ‘University of California, Los Angeles’).
«Das Buch sei allen empfohlen, die sich für amerikanische Literatur und polnisch-jüdische Beziehungen interessieren und offen dafür sind, ihre Vorstellungen von »Polen« und »den Polen« kritisch zu hinterfragen.» (Katrin Stoll, Einsicht 11, 2014)

Lucyna Aleksandrowicz-Pędich is Associate Professor at SWPS/University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw, where she is teaching American literature and cross-cultural communication. Her main research area is focusing on Jewish-American writers.

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