Autobiographical writing has been in a constant process of migration from its initial marginality and invisibility towards a relative centrality, as the principal source of information in the study of the social evolution of minorities, historically denied a seat at the academic table. While the genre has been criticized for its lack of rigor and for its essential subjectivity, when multiple works are associated, they offer a uniquely crystallized image. The present book aims to add to this field by exploring the autobiographies signed by four Jewish-American writers, hitherto omitted from the canons. We meld together the question of identity with this fluid genre, as autobiographies themselves reflect the diversity of perspectives, each of them enlarging the tradition of autobiographical writing.
The chosen works demonstrate the limited and artificial nature of the cultural monolith. The two feminist authors, Gerda Lerner and Letty Cottin-Pogrebin, share the common desire for self-defining, eliminating the arbitrary distinctions between subjectivity and objectivity, personal and political, public and private. The New York intellectuals, Alfred Kazin and Norman Podhoretz, underline the profound differences between second generation immigrants, representatives of an apparently homogenous context, but whose options for their self-writing prove their oppositeness. The four autobiographies prove the malleability of the genre, which allows for an intertwining of styles and forms of expression. They demonstrate the multiple facets included under the umbrella of Jewish-American culture, in which none would contest the other's legitimacy, but rather add one more layer and dimension.