Background
Marks, Elaine was born on November 13, 1930 in New York City. Daughter of Harry and Ruth (Elin) Marks.
( When Europeans in the Middle Ages spoke of "marranos," ...)
When Europeans in the Middle Ages spoke of "marranos," they were making a derogatory reference to "crypto-Jews"--those who publicly converted to and performed as Christians, but who remained secretly faithful to Judaic law. Today, asserts Elaine Marks in Marrano as Metaphor, the concept can be used to describe all Jews living in a dominant Christian or Muslim culture, whatever may be their conscious relationship to Judaism. A sweeping examination of the Jewish presence in French literature from the sixteenth century to the present, Marrano as Metaphor explores the many shapes and forms in which jews are perceived, spoken, and written about. Employing a wide spectrum of analytical methods from history, literary theory and psychoanalysis, renowned French scholar Elaine Marks opens new doors in the study of literature. Marrano as Metaphor investigates questions of difference and assimilation, of respect and derogation, in a wide range of French literature--from Alain Robbe-Grillet's discussion in his memoirs of his parents' antisemitism to the story of Esther through Jean Racine and Marcel Proust; from efforts to address Jewish issues in the writings of Marguerite Duras and Jean-Paul Sartre to the secular, "assimilated" Jewish tradition of Jacques Derrida and Helene Cixous. Marks looks closely at strains of antisemitism running through French literature, analyzing such antecedents as the nihilism of the 1880s and its meditation on death and absence.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231103085/?tag=2022091-20
Marks, Elaine was born on November 13, 1930 in New York City. Daughter of Harry and Ruth (Elin) Marks.
Bachelor, Bryn Mawr College, 1952; Master of Arts, University of Pennsylvania, 1953; Doctor of Philosophy, New York University, 1958.
Assistant professor French, New York University, New York City, 1958-1960; associate professor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1963-1965; professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1967-1968; professor French, Italian and women's studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, since 1980; professor French, U. Massachusetts, Amherst, 1965-1966. Director Women's Studies Research Center, 1977-1985.
( When Europeans in the Middle Ages spoke of "marranos," ...)
("This important anthology provides us with translations o...)
(Book by Marks, Elaine)
Member Modern Language Association (president 1993), Midwest Modern Language Association, American Association Teachers French, National Women's Studies Association.