Jonathan Boyarin, "Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the
Eighth Street Shul" and:
For more assignment ideas involving this essay, please visit the Boyarin
link-o-mat.
Power, Civilization, and the Self (Assignment 1)
In “Waiting for a Jew” Jonathan Boyarin suggests that it is the very marginality of the Eighth Street Shul that enables (or allows) him to develop a “transcultural” self. Do you agree with Boyarin that “communities on the edge of mass society” may be the best places in which to develop such an identity? Why or why not? What is the value of transcultural selfhood?
Please remember to address all three questions, and be sure to include at least one quotation from Boyarin in each paragraph.
Anthony Alms, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From Power, Civilization, and the Self.
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Boyarin and Armstrong: The Future of God and the
Future of Community
We might say that in "Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth
Street Shul," Jonathan Boyarin also takes on Armstrong's question, "Does
God have a future?" But Boyarin poses the question in a rather different
way, concerned less with the disappearance of God than with the disappearance
of a community of believers. As he recalls, the religious community of
his childhood is today "as obliterated as any shtetl in Eastern
Europe." If the survival of God depends on the reinvention of such communities
in the ways that Boyarin describes, then what are we to make of Armstrong's
call for a turn away from a "personal God" and toward a more mystical
religion? Will this turn renew waning communities of faith or will it
only hasten to their disappearance?
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Boyarin and Krakauer: The Search for Identity
In "Waiting for a Jew," Jonathan Boyarin travels from New York
to Paris to Jerusalem to Los Angeles, tracking the various ways that he
is received and the varying ways he comes to identify himself as Jewish.
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer describes a rather different spiritual
journey: Cris McCandless' voyage from Atlanta to Mexico, up through California
and Canada on to Alaska. What is the difference, would you say, between
Boyarin's search and McCandless' search? What role does tradition play
in the search for identity?
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Jonathan Boyarin and Michael Pollan
Pollan’s use of the phrase “Playing God in the Garden” suggests that the author perceives the practice of bio-engineering as rather more than a threat to one’s physical well being.
How do Boyarin’s “sense of loss” and Pollans’ implied reservations regarding the impact of “bio-tech” foods reflect a shared concern with the issue of identity?
Things to think about:
What do we mean by “identity”?
How is one’s identity established?
Is one’s identity a reflection of a) one’s community or b) one’s profession or c) something entirely different?
What lies behind our instinctual resistance to genetically engineered foods?
How do we balance the need to “belong” with our desire for individual expression?
How do the two authors complicate each other’s definition of community.
What does the term “marginal” suggest about Boyarin’s perception of himself?
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From “Identity” Lies in the Eye of the Beholder.
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Jonathan Boyarin and Oliver Sacks
Both Boyarin, in "Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul", and Sacks, in The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, act as observers attempting to make sense of alien worlds. While Sacks watches, as it were, from the outside, Boyarin often alternates between the roles of actor and spectator.
How does the status of the observer, with respect to the system under observation, affect the nature of observations made and what implications does this have for an observer attempting to understand him/herself?
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From “Identity” Lies in the Eye of the Beholder.
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Jonathan Boyarin, Oliver Sacks, and Robert Thurman
Use Boyarin’s Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul by and Sacks’ The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, to show how consistently excelling at a chosen endeavor, as opposed to being “average” at it, might prevent one from attaining the ideal of selflessness as described by Robert Thurman in Wisdom.
Things to think about:
How does being “average” make one feel?
What does being “average” at something prompt one to do?
What are the personal drawbacks of being skilled in one’s chosen profession or at any task, in general?
What are some of the positive outcomes of failure?
What does a novice have that an “expert” lacks?
What changes when one transforms into the other?
Can one choose to relinquish an ability?
Why is it hard for an “expert” to act otherwise?
What steps must you take to strengthen your less dominant hand?
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From “Identity” Lies in the Eye of the Beholder.
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Power, Civilization, and the Self (Assignment 2)
In his essay, Stephen Jay Gould tells a “fable” about how woolly mammoths may have descended from elephants inhabiting Siberia (328). The story illustrates the “mechanism” of genealogical change (or “evolution”): specific traits that occur randomly in a species may—by enabling individuals possessing the traits to survive a change in climate—become dominant characteristics of the species. In the development of the mammoths, a trait of marginal importance (hairiness) in a mild climate becomes a means of survival in a cold climate. In a five-page paper, address the following question: What impact, if any, could marginality (as Boyarin experiences it) have on the genetic “evolution” of the human species?
You may choose to focus on either future evolution or on human development in the past. Either way (but especially if you choose a historical perspective), read very carefully what Gould writes in his penultimate paragraph.
Anthony Alms, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From Power, Civilization, and the Self.
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Power, Civilization, and the Self (Assignment 3)
Alexander Stille uses the Ganges River as a focus for religion, science (or technology), politics, and international cooperation in the face of imminent environmental disaster. If the river is to have a “next life”—at least for humankind—it seems there will have to be changes made in local religious and scientific practices, as well as in local and international politics. Drawing on ideas and concepts from Stille, Gould, and Boyarin, discuss the following: How might globalization affect the relationships between religion, science, and politics in the Third World?
Anthony Alms, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
From Power, Civilization, and the Self.
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