The Object of Jewish Literature: A Material History – Barbara Mann

With the rise of digital media, the ‘death of the book’ has been widely discussed. But the physical object itself persists. Here, through the lens of materiality and objects, Barbara Mann tells a history of modern Jewish literature, from novels and poetry to graphic novels and artist’s books, offering a new frame for understanding how literary genres emerge.

Barbara Mann is the inaugural Stephen H. Hoffman Professor of Modern Hebrew Language and Literature at Case Western Reserve University. Prior to her arrival at CWRU, she taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, and in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Her first two books — A Place in History: Tel Aviv and the Creation of Jewish Urban Space (Stanford UP, 2006) and Space and Place in Jewish Cultures (Rutgers UP, 2012) — explore questions of space, memory and identity. Her third volume, The Object of Jewish Literature: A Material History (Yale UP, 2022) tells the history of modern Jewish writing through the lens of material culture. She is currently working on a study of the role of the book as an object in postwar Jewish cultures.

Thursday, April 4, 2024 • 314 Royce • 4 PM

The Object of Jewish Literature: A Material History
Arnold Band Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Studies

Barbara Mann (Case Western Reserve University)
Moderator: Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA)