Europe, Israel And America In The Twentieth Century: The Global Theatre Of Jewish Tragedy, Epic And Comedy

Abstract: This essay is an attempt to regard Jewish culture in the twentieth century through classical generic categories: tragic, comic, and epic. Through this lens, Europe in the first half of the twentieth century is the stage for the Jewish tragedy, America incubates the Jewish comedy, and Israel enacts the Jewish epic. Through one fictional character and two historical figures—Agnon’s Yitzhak Kumer, the writer Bruno Schulz, and the actor Groucho Marx—I begin to explore this paradigm. By the end of the twentieth century each of these genres has shifted into its default mode: American Jewish literature resonates with tragic notes, Europe begins to be mined for its comic potential, and Israel enters into an anti-epic or dystopian mode.