Modern Jewish Literature: A View from the Plantation

• In Event: Jewish Literatures in South America and North Africa

Abstract

This paper argues that David Isaak Cohen Nassy’s “Historical Essay on the Colony of Suriname” (1788) is an early work of modern Jewish literature. While the plantation setting has received attention in studies of European literatures for some time, it has played a less central role in the study of modern Jewish literature and culture. By contextualizing this Jewish Enlightenment text as an epistolary travel narrative, I’ll consider how Nassy’s storytelling articulates his attitudes towards Jewish politics, especially vis a vis the increasingly urban, Ashkenazi makeup of his community. I will argue for the Caribbean colony as an unforgettable site of modern Jewish literary production, one where racial and intra-Jewish conflicts intersect. The paper delivered is a revised version first delivered at the Anton de Kom University, Paramaribo, Suriname in June 2018.

Author

• Eli Rosenblatt, Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor