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Emma Lazarus (1849-1887): Writing as a Jewish Woman in America
Lazarus's work culminates a century of Jewish women's literary explorations, much of which remains unappreciated. Her vigorous, dramatic poetry is international in scope, deeply conscious of alienation, prejudice, and exile (in both the United States and abroad). Like her predecessors, she crafts her voice by reworking the politics of diaspora and laying claim to the role of prophet. Simultaneously, she works towards the proud, triumphant invigoration of Judaic identity in language that is lush, incisive, deeply structured, and tactically shrewd. She remains the sharpest Jewish satirist of Christian anti-Semitism.
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