Rottman Family Lecture: ‘Memory and Fire and Poetry and the Wandering Spirit’: On Jewish American Literature in 2026 by Josh Lambert

Taking its inspiration from a 1944 statement by the poet Muriel Rukeyser, this talk will offer a vision of the purposes of American Jewish literature, and its study, at a moment of overlapping crises, when sensible observers might feel that this literature (and perhaps all literature) has become irrelevant. To make a case for the continuing salience of American Jewish literary studies, Josh Lambert will discuss some of the recent activities of the Working Group on Jewish American Literature he directs with Maeera Shreiber, with the support of the Grant Center at Tulane, as well as a handful of recent literary and critical works that extend this subfield in directions a previous generation of scholars could never have imagined.

This lecture will also serve as the opening keynote of the Jewish American & Holocaust Literature (JAHLit) Symposium. A reception with food and wine will follow.