For the children born in the United States to Jewish families that had left Europe prior to the Holocaust, or had arrived as refugees shortly after the conclusion of the second world war, the promise of a new life in America was often complicated through a perceived obligation to preserve traditions nearly extinguished by the genocidal rampage of the Nazis. The imaginative fiction of J. D. Salinger, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, and the theatre of Arthur Miller were all, to varying degrees, concerned with the process of assimilation and the retention of an intellectual and cultural heritage which was in danger of extinction. Among these, Bernard Malamud’s work was itself energized by the tension between his fascination with the mythic dimensions of post-war…
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Citation: Lewis, Leon. "The Magic Barrel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 March 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=266, accessed 21 November 2024.]
