Majority Language and Minority Identity in Contemporary American Jewish and Palestinian Israeli Literature

The lecture will consider how adoption by writers belonging ethnic or religious minorities of the language of the majority culture can help them sharpen their criticism of the minority whose experience they depict by blurring the distinction between insider and outsider in the reader's mind. She would compare examples from some of Roth's works about American Jews with others from works by Palestinian Arab writers who use Hebrew as a vehicle for portraying their own communities.  She has in mind particularly Sayed Kashua and Attalah Mansoor.  The session would involve close reading of several texts.