Professor Qiao Guoqiang of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) delivered an academic speech titled “Jewish American Literature of the 20th Century” on Jun. 14th. The lecture was hosted by Professor Cai Bin, Dean of the college.
During the two-hour sessions, Prof. Qiao started by introducing three waves of immigration, particularly expounding the second one, in which emerged many renowned Jewish writers. Next, he quoted some Jewish literary works such as The Slave and The Assistant to analyze identities in detail from the perspectives such as religious belief, living habits, cultural taboos, traditional costumes and titles of Jewish American writers. Finally, he mentioned that “Assimilation” was a key point in the studies of American Jewish literature which mainly covers languages, costumes, intermarriage and civil rights. According to him, it is the profound national belief of Jews that has assimilated gentile, which has led to the assimilation in Jewish literary works.
At the end of his speech, Prof. Qiao interacted with students by answering their questions about religious attitude of Jews described in Singh’s works. Teaching faculty and the students of the college have a deeper understanding of Jewish American literature from the speech. And it is helpful to our future studies and appreciation of Jewish American literature. (Zhao Qingqing)
