The following is a much-shortened adaptation—a sample—of a much larger project, a polemic, on the New York intellectuals: specifically on how we can (or should) talk about them, given a critical concern with Jewish identity and identification. There's a lot that should be here that's not, most notably careful consideration of the writings of the New York critics that form the context of my broadsides; for that I apologize, but I'm hoping those broadsides will compel readers to turn to those writings. A brief note on my subtitle: I am writing this as a critic of Jewish literature, and it is not meant in any way as a statement of editorial policy. Many readers know Ruth Wisse as concerned with the politics of a Jewish literary canon, most visibly, perhaps, in her 2000 work The Modern Jewish Canon, which for many scholars cemented her reputation as an arbiter of...
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