Explore the richness and diversity of modern Jewish writing through fiction, poetry, essays and plays.

This term, we encounter the Czech Jewishness of Tom Stoppard, the poetry of Stanley Kunitz and Linda Pastan, and explore identity, memory, family, faith and the passage of time. With expert teachers, including Dr Aviva Dautch who returns to teach five sessions, discover how Jewish experience shapes literature across generations and cultures.

Module 1

• 12 October – The Web of Creation: The Poetry of Stanley Kunitz — Dr Eve Grubin
• 19 October – London’s Jewish Theatre — Dr Chloe Pinto
• 26 October – Prayer to the Shechinah — Dr Chloe Pinto
• 2 November – The Prague Spring by Simon Mawer — Dr Aviva Dautch
• 9 November – The Velvet Revolution by Helen Epstein — Dr Aviva Dautch
• 16 November – An Introduction to Tom Stoppard — Dr Aviva Dautch
• 23 November – Rock and Roll by Tom Stoppard, Part 1 — Dr Aviva Dautch
• 30 November – Rock and Roll by Tom Stoppard, Part 2 — Dr Aviva Dautch
• 14 December – Passages of Time: The Poetry of Linda Pastan — Dr Eve Grubin

Selected notes:

The Web of Creation (12 October): The link above gives an overview of his life & contains his poems. Please prepare the poems The Layers and Passing Through; note that the latter is available to buy as a book. 

London's Jewish Theatre (19 October): We will study Harold Pinter's poem “The Homecoming,” (1965) and Jacob Gordin's “Mirele Efros: The Jewish Queen Lear,” (1898), focusing on the following topics: Jewish bodies in performance; performativity, words and action; London as a centre for Jewish life. Readings will be distributed prior to the session; the link is for those who want a physical copy.

Prayer to the Shechinah (26 October): We will study selected poems from Alicia Ostriker's "The Volcano Sequence" alongside poems by Jessica Jacobs, Rosebud Ben-Oni and Joelle Maxx Millman, focusing on the relationship between lyric and prayer, Jewish femininity and Biblical narratives in the present day. Readings will be distributed prior to the session; the link is for those who want a physical copy of the full collection.

The Czech Jewishness of Tom Stoppard (2-30 November): We’ll travel to Prague for an exploration of the Czech Jew-ish identity of Tom Stoppard to commemorate his first yahrzeit. We’ll start by reading Simon Mawer’s novel about the Prague Spring to learn about the anti-communist political protests of 1968 in a literary way. An essay by second-generation Jewish journalist Helen Epstein will take us into the Velvet Revolution and what happened to those Jews living in Czechoslovakia in 1989 as the country transitioned into a parliamentary system. Knowing the historical background will help us understand the circumstances Stoppard found himself in when, in 1999, he wrote an autobiographical piece about returning to the country and discovering his Czech-Jewish roots (25 years later this would grow into the play Leopoldstadt, which would transmute the experience of Stoppard real-life Sträussler ancestors into those of a fictional family in Vienna). We’ll finish the series with a close reading of scenes from Rock ‘n’ Roll, which premiered at the Royal Court in 2006: one of Stoppard’s most political plays and his homage to Václav Havel, the playwright who became the first president of the Czech Republic.

Module 1: 12 October – 14 December (9 sessions, £135)

Module 2: 11 January – 8 March (8 sessions, £120)

Module 3: 5 April – 21 June (8 sessions, £120)

Whole year registration: £320

Please note that selected classes will also offer an in-person option alongside the online session.

If you have any questions about course or programme dates, please email joel.ucko@lsjs.ac.uk.