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Jewish Literature: Identity & Imagination

A Reading and Discussion Series

Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel

The graphic novel is an exciting new form of storytelling. Here, five Jewish artists experiment with words and pictures to tell stories of childhood, war, and desire; to conjure up lost worlds, both real and imaginary; and to contemplate history, myth, and the individual psyche.

Let's Talk About It!

University Libraries will host a five-part reading and discussion series, Jewish Literature: Identity and Imagination, this spring. This exciting program is designed to offer participants an opportunity to explore Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books centered on a common theme. Dr. Steven L. Jacobs will lead and facilitate the book discussions which center on the theme Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.

This program will bring together interested readers, both Jewish and non-Jewish, for thoughtful talks about five works of Jewish literature as well as an accompanying scholarly essay. The essay, written by project scholar Jeremy Dauber, Atran Assistant Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Columbia University, is designed to introduce the theme and illuminate discussion.

Book discussions will be held monthly on Thursday evenings, 7:00-8:30 p.m. in room 205 of Gorgas Library, except the March discussion which will be held in room 401 of Gorgas Library. Attend all five sessions or as many as you can to get to know other readers and enjoy the variety of viewpoints!

Reading List

• A Contract with God / Will Eisner
• The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale / Art Spiegelman
• Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories / Ben Katchor
• The Quitter / Harvey Pekar
• The Rabbi's Cat / Joann Sfar

Multiple copies of these titles are available from University Libraries. Check the Libraries' Catalog for availability.

A copy of each title is available also from Shelton State Community College, Stillman College, and the Tuscaloosa Public Library.

Thursday, January 24, 7:00 p.m.
Discussion of A Contract with God by Will Eisner

Each week during the 1940s, Will Eisner drew "The Spirit," a comic about a masked detective that earned him fans around the globe. He revolutionized comics a second time when, in 1978, he reached back to his own beginnings to produce the first "graphic novel"—a book-length form that now includes such classics as Art Spiegelman's Maus.

Set among 1930s Bronx tenements, these four stories capture the brutal, tender world of working-class Jews. In the title story, Frimme Hersh's daughter suddenly dies, sorely testing the "contract" this self-made man once entered into with God. In "Cookalein," Eisner casts a humorous eye on the amorous, social-climbing tendencies of young urbanites spending a summer in the Adirondacks. Wry, honest, and sad, these four stories showcase Eisner's unique ability to capture character with the quick stroke of his pen.

Thursday, February 21, 7:00 p.m.
Discussion of The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

The comic book transfigured, this graphic novel tells the story of Spiegelman's parents Vladek and Anna, Jews reaching maturity in a Europe on the verge of Nazism, and their terrifying history and eventual survival in the concentration camps. Spiegelman uses the broadest tools of the genre—Jews are drawn as mice, Nazis as cats, Poles as pigs, Frenchmen as frogs, and so on—to make vivid the unimaginable, both to the reader and to himself, appearing as a character in the book listening to his father's story.

A triumph of storytelling in panels, Maus changed forever the way that readers, critics, and artists themselves thought about the graphic novel. In 1992 the Pulitzer Prize committee recognized Spiegelman's groundbreaking achievement by awarding him a special prize for Maus.

Thursday, March 27, 7:00 p.m.
The March discussion will be held in room 401 of Gorgas Library.
Discussion of Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories / by Ben Katchor

Steeped in a melancholy, grey-tinted world of elevated trains, luncheonettes, and gently decaying tenements, Katchor's perambulating photographer Julius Knipl documents a rapidly vanishing urban netherworld. Peopled by men who map the migration of hairstyles and those who belong to the Amalgamated Panty-Waist Fitters Union, his cityscape is a familiar one, albeit with the touch of a demented fairy tale.

This is a world where films like "The Wild Aspirin" play at the Doloroso and wholesale calendar salesmen "enter a state of self-induced hibernation" by mid-February, their job complete for the year. Brilliantly conveying a deep and abiding affection for lower middle-class city life, Katchor, with his blocky ink drawings and wry Yiddish-flavored text, implores his readers to open their eyes to the beauty of the urban landscape.

Thursday, April 17, 7:00 p.m.
Discussion of The Quitter by Harvey Pekar

Pekar, the author of the celebrated comic book American Splendor, spent his life quitting before he could fail. Here, he enumerates the ways: an adolescence spent bullying other children in Cleveland, where his immigrant parents owned a small grocery; a lackluster academic career; an unending array of file clerk jobs.

Ostensibly covering Pekar's early years, this dark graphic novel tackles everything from his brief stint in the Navy to jazz criticism and mid-century race relations. The gritty and atmospheric artwork by American Splendor collaborator Dean Haspiel perfectly captures Pekar's cantankerous tone. But a surprisingly hopeful message ultimately surfaces. It's possible to find your way in the world, Pekar suggests, even if it takes a lifetime to do it.

Thursday, May 15, 7:00 p.m.
Discussion of The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar

After eating a parrot, an aged Algerian rabbi's cat develops the ability to speak and quickly declares his desire not only to be Jewish, but to have a bar mitzvah. The rabbi engages his pet in a spiraling debate, touching on topics such as spelling, parental love, and the very nature of Jewish identity.

French graphic novelist Sfar's delightful, vibrantly illustrated story is set in Algeria and Paris in the 1930s, where the encroaching modern world is rapidly shattering many long-held customs and assumptions. And like his human counterparts, the rabbi's cat has some tough choices to make: "Should I stay in this house of Jews who are so elegant you'd swear they were French, with the beautiful rugs and the smell of fine cooking, or follow my master in the rain"?

Program Scholar

	The discussions will be led by Dr. Steven L. Jacobs, University of Alabama Associate Professor/Aaron Aronov Chair of Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies and Rabbi for Temple Emanu-El. Read more about Steven Jacobs here.
Steven L. Jacobs

Program Partners

• University Libraries, The University of Alabama
• Shelton State Libraries
• Stillman College Sheppard Library
• Tuscaloosa Public Library

Program Sponsors

Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature, a reading and discussion series, has been made possible through a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association.

The mission of the American Library Association Public Programs Office is to foster cultural programming as an integral part of library service in all types of libraries. Established in 1990, the office helps thousands of libraries nationwide develop and host programs that encourage dialogue among community members and works to establish libraries as cultural centers in their communities.

Nextbook is a national initiative to promote books that illuminate 3,000 years of Jewish civilization. Their programs include partnerships with public libraries to build collections and create innovative public programs; annotated reading lists that guide readers to exciting works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; and a Web site featuring a daily cultural news digest with links to stories and reviews from around the world.

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More Information

For more information, please email or contact her at (205) 348-6390.