Space and Place in Jewish Studies / / Barbara E. Mann.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Rutgers University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Mann, Barbara E.,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Key Words in Jewish Studies ; 2
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (212 p.) :; 6 photographs

Scholars in the humanities have become increasingly interested in questions of how space is produced and perceived-and they have found that this consideration of human geography greatly enriches our understanding of cultural history. This "spatial turn" equally has the potential to revolutionize Jewish Studies, complicating familiar notions of Jews as "people of the Book," displaced persons with only a common religious tradition and history to unite them. Space and Place in Jewish Studies embraces these exciting critical developments by investigating what "space" has meant within Jewish culture and tradition-and how notions of "Jewish space," diaspora, and home continue to resonate within contemporary discourse, bringing space to the foreground as a practical and analytical category. Barbara Mann takes us on a journey from medieval Levantine trade routes to the Eastern European shtetl to the streets of contemporary New York, introducing readers to the variety of ways in which Jews have historically formed communities and created a sense of place for themselves. Combining cutting-edge theory with rabbinics, anthropology, and literary analysis, Mann offers a fresh take on the Jewish experience.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I. Terms of Debate -- Part II. State of the Question -- Part III. In a New Key -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author