EMMA LAZARUS AND ADRIENNE RICH (1929- )

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="039f0f21egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B>EMMA LAZARUS AND ADRIENNE RICH (1929- )</B><B>:</B></div> <div> <B>The Prophetic Tradition</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="038f2f02egerdp.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="lecture_teaching.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults"><U><B>Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Teenager Education Topics "><U><B>Teenager Education Topics</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jewish Womens Poetry"><U><B>Jewish Women</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EMMA LAZARUS (18491887) and JewishAmeric"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Emma Lazarus</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JEWISH WOMEN POETS: Imagining Israel, 18"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Imagining Israel</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IMMIGRATION: Jewish Womens Poetry"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Immigration: Jewish Women Poets</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SHOAH AND JEWISH WOMENS POETRY "><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The </B></U></A><A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SHOAH AND JEWISH WOMENS POETRY "><U><I><B>Shoah</B></I></U></A><A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE SHOAH AND JEWISH WOMENS POETRY "><U><B> and Jewish Women's Poetry</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GRACE AGUILAR "><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Grace Aguilar</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="AMY LEVY"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Amy Levy</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact JEWISH VOICES"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact JEWISH VOICES</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jewish Voices 200 Years of Jewish Poetry"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03bf0f03.jpg"> <div> <I><B>Emma Lazarus and Adrienne Rich : The Prophetic Tradition</B></I></div> <bR> <div>     Rich, arguably the poet of our time most committed to justice, <I><B>tzedek</B></I>, has, like  Lazarus, struggled to achieve a Jewish female identity in American literary culture.  This topic focuses on elegy and prophecy.  Both writers seek a Jewish form for the expression of mourning: both rework the Kaddish in relation to the liturgical year and traditions of grieving; both ask, How does one write a Jewish elegy (in the midst of Christian culture) when traditional Judaism rejects the standard (Greco-Christian) literary forms of resurrection?   As Lazarus and Rich turn to the closely-related forms of prophecy, they wrest from the Bible images of female empowerment that do not wholly correspond with “normative” models for Biblical male prophets.  Both writers restructure gender-relations within Jewish tradition in ways  fundamental to the future of our Jewishness. Although the feminist movements in which they write differ in time and focus, both writers offer restructurings of gender-relations within Jewish tradition that are fundamental to the future of American Jewishness.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>