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Try "Innocents Abroad," "Captain Stormfield," Melville's "Clarel,"
plus other Holy Land travel books, almost all of which describe
Jews. And, of course, your student should read "Three Vassar Girls
in the Holy Land" (I forget the author but she wrote a series of
"Three Vassar Girls in . . . "). One of the three girls is secretly
a Jew -- but they like her, and, after all, she doesn't smell too
bad. This book is a compendium of stereotypes of the time -- while
trying to be enlightened. It's a laugh riot. If you read the whole
series, you will probably get a wonderful survey of all sorts of
stereotypes.
I know that someone has written a survey of the image of Jews in
American literature -- I don't have the bibliographic information
handy -- and that book will give many examples. Also read Shelley
Fisher Fishkin's "Markt Twain and the Jews" in Arizona Quarterly 61.1
Spring 2005.
Hilton Obenzinger
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