Identity

                                                         Literary Blog Entry 7

        In Post-Holocaust Jewish Literature of Borowoski, Celan, Amichai, and Lispector many themes are discussed: rage, identity, and overcoming obstacles, yet identity seems to reoccur. Identity comes from one’s set of circumstances, upbringing, and mindset. In Lispectors’s “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman,” a story of a woman who felt she married beneath herself,  was struggling to find her place in society and in her home. As a result, she became unhappy and turned to apathy and drinking. “And the vanity of feeling drunk, made her show such disdain for everything, making her feel swollen and rotund like a large cow.” In Borowski’s “This Way to the Gas Chamber Ladies and Gentlemen,” the story of a different identity: a Polish prisoner, who had the horrific job of disposing of bodies in Jewish concentration camps. The prisoner could not escape the job he had and loathed every second of every day there.

        Students can be taught identity is learned through self and circumstances, and what you face in life does not have to define you. Students can read “Jerusalem”, by Yehuda Amichai, and analyze the message he was giving. A discussion could be had about how identity can be related to this modern- day Psalmist. 

    With Pop Culture, students can identify with music. Rap music is known for having explicit lyrics about violence and death that many students can relate to. In Celen's "Aspen Tree," "My mother's hair never turned to white", students reading this who have lost a parent to could especially relate to this.

   

Works Cited

Amichai, Y. (2014). Jerusalem. Contemporary World Literature. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Second Edition- Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company: Puchner

Borowoski, T. (2014). This Way to the Gas Chamber Ladies and Gentlemen. Contemporary World Literature. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Second Edition- Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company: Puchner

Celan, P. (2014). Aspen Tree. Contemporary World Literature. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Second Edition- Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company: Puchner

CleanPNG. (2020). Retrieved from:https://www.cleanpng.com/png-star-of-david-religious-symbol-clip-art-judaism-st-6223849/

Lispector, C. (2014). The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman. Contemporary World Literature. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Second Edition- Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company: Puchner

Pixell.Co. (n.d.). Retrieved from:https://www.pixelle.co/krtsch-2/