Multicultural writers use the Jew to explore their own differences

Evidence

As argued in the introduction and several essays in this volume, discourses about Muslims have always implied the Jews as an often unstated referent. Said had recognized that much when he labeled anti-Semitism the “secret sharer” of orientalism. While multicultural literature has problematized ethnic and racial difference (especially when it concerns the author’s own ethnic identity), its representation of the Jew remains that of the “standard” (in Said’s terms) orientalist representation of the Other. Multicultural literature has inherited the centuries-old trope of the Jew from Western literature, where the character of the Jew has often expressed essential, permanent Difference. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Multicultural literature reproduces, not challenges, the orientalist trope of the Jew as essential Other — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732; Jewish difference serves as a trope for unassimilability across postcolonial fiction. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 756; Minority writers are read as representing a collectivity greater than themselves — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 160 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Multicultural literature reproduces, not challenges, the orientalist trope of the Jew as essential Other #complicates (0.80) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 732