Communication and Society in Jewish American Short Stories

Examination Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: 20 Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Institut fr Anglistik und Amerikanistik) language: English abstract: EXPOS It is change continuing change inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is but the world as it will be. (http: //memorablequotations) This quotation by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov deals with two fundamental issues of this paper: change and society. All of our protagonists will as is one of the characteristics of the short story be shown at a turning point effecting change in their lives. Also I am going to concentrate on the relationship between the tales (central) characters and society. Do they need society as a point of reference or are they leading their lives independently from and with no relationship to the culture surrounding them? Do they come from another for example Eastern European background? If yes can they adapt easily do they have difficulties adapting or do they not intend to adapt at all? Pointing out that Isaac Asimov is Jewish and therefore potentially relevant for this paper is superfluous. Yet not every author who happens to be Jewish can automatically be significant for this paper. For me a certain amount of Jewishness that is Jewish characters a piece of Jewish tradition religion or the presence of a Jewish neighborhood was required for a tale to be considered. This restriction would still leave thousands of authors and millions of narratives. Therefore I chose to treat only New York authors and selected their stories among other criteria according to setting that is their main location had to be New York City. Hence I included Grace Paley and left out perhaps better known writers for example Saul Bellow who is generally associated