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jaimecleland
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| Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:18 am Post subject: Discussion questions about Roth |
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Several of you suggested in the mid-semester course review that you would like to write your own discussion questions, and to have several discussion questions in advance before class. So this week, use the forum as a place to post questions you want to think about in class on March 21. Please write at least one question by noon on March 21, and check in to make sure that you've seen the questions, because that's what we'll discuss in class! I will check in periodically and may ask you to push your questions further in some specific way, or offer a few of my own. |
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valentina
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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As far as defender of faith is concerned, I have been thinking about how religion has been used as a means to acquire things or justify actions that have nothing to do with religion. And to what point does Grossbart act erroneously. |
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sjf291
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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Is Roth copping out by saying he is not really doing this to represent the Jews or to go in conjuction with the notions of right and wrong? Granted, while reading Defender of the faith my first thought is not "this is how Jewish people are" but as someone from that identity doesn't he hold some form of responsibility. He is writing it off as a mere work of fiction. Is fiction just supposed to free us from society's ideals? Why can't fiction also make reinforcements on what are universal truths? Why can't fiction SAY and Mean SOMETHING? |
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Guest
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| Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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I meant Goodbye Columbus |
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tiffany
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:43 am Post subject: |
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Isn't it human nature to want to feel like we belong to a priviliged group, exclusive to few? The specific example I'm referring to here is in "Goodbye Columbus" with Grossbart's need to have an exclusive relationship with Marx. To me, this idea can be applied in any situation and isn't so much endemic solely to the experience of ethnicity, as some suggest. |
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jaimecleland
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:54 am Post subject: |
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| tiffany wrote: |
| Isn't it human nature to want to feel like we belong to a priviliged group, exclusive to few? The specific example I'm referring to here is in "Goodbye Columbus" with Grossbart's need to have an exclusive relationship with Marx. To me, this idea can be applied in any situation and isn't so much endemic solely to the experience of ethnicity, as some suggest. |
Is this really a question, or is it more of a statement? What if you asked instead something like, "Does Grossbart's need to have an exclusive relationship with Marx depend on the fact that they're Jewish, or is something else going on?" I'm tossing that out as a possibility for the form, but you should of course put into the form of an open question the substance of what you really want to know about. |
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Peter w.
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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In some many ways, war contradicts religion and its faith. Is it possible to have complete faith and devotion to a religion in a place where death and killing is prevalent (war)?
In Defender of the Faith, we see the struggle Marx has to deal with juggling between a good Sargeant, a good Jew, and a good person. I'm interested in how a person can be all the above and manage to succeed in war. |
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jaimecleland
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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I'm breaking my own guideline about timing of posts, here, but another thing I'd like us to think about in class is Roth's argument of the special qualities of fiction, starting on page 151 of "Writing About Jews." We've read Rodriguez's patently nonfiction autobiography/essay collection, along with Kingston's autobiography/novel/mixed genre event -- what standards should these works be held to? That is, does genre make a difference in reading and writing about ethnicity? |
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