The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Language and Culture

The Modern Jewish Canon is Ruth R. Wisse's attempt to establish a set of criteria for a canon of Jewish literature (mainly prose fiction written by Ashkenazi Jews and their descendants in the 20th century). This is a fascinating, odd, and ambitious book, whose big ideas are ultimately less interesting than its small observations. Wisse, who is a firm believer in the moral power of fiction ("Even considering the dangers to the text that may accompany a moral education, I would argue that the importance it ascribes to words more than compensates for the occasional violence it does to them"), designates "Jewish literature" as work that "tells the stories of the Jewish people in the twentieth century ... best." The Modern Jewish Canon never provides a convincing, specific explanation of what exactly that means. As a result, some passages of the book (such as Wisse's ejection of Marcel Proust from her canon) seem irrationally parochial. Wisse's strongest readings concern "how the language in which Jewishness is conceived affects the nature of the literary work." She is highly sensitive to the different ways that Hebrew, Yiddish, English, Russian, and German languages give rise to distinct kinds of political, moral, religious, and literary sensibilities. --Michael Joseph Gross