Empathy with the Devil: Isaac Bashevis Singer and the Deadly Pleasures of Misogyny

Spilka, Mark

doi:10.2307/1346109

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Creators and Disturbers: Reminiscences By Jewish Intellectua1

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1998

2017

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“…The extraordinary relish taken in the description of the latter's fantasy testifies to the "deadly pleasure" that Singer took in misogyny, and requires no further comment. 66 Singer writes:…”

Section: Creators and Disturbers: Reminiscences By Jewish Intellectuamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Other Religion of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Savvas¹

2017

J. Am. Stud.

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This essay analyses the later fiction of Nobel Prize-winning writer Isaac Bashevis Singer through the prism of his vegetarianism. Singer figured his adoption of a vegetarian diet in 1962 as a kind of conversion, pronouncing it a “religion” that was central to his being. Here I outline Singer's vegetarian philosophy, and argue that it was the underlying ethical precept in the fiction written after the conversion. I demonstrate the way in which that ethic informs the presentation of both Judaism and women in Singer's later writings. The piece concludes with the suggestion that this vegetarian ethic was the mainspring of the critique of humanism found in Singer's final novels.

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Section: Creators and Disturbers: Reminiscences By Jewish Intellectuamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Other Religion of Isaac Bashevis Singer

Savvas¹

2017

J. Am. Stud.

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“…Whereas the lustful Yasha resents what he perceives as the 'enslaving power' of women, 42 The Escape Artist makes clear, through its depiction of the horrors of the lives of women imprisoned in the brothel, that it is women who are enslaved and sexually exploited by men. Whereas the lustful Yasha resents what he perceives as the 'enslaving power' of women, 42 The Escape Artist makes clear, through its depiction of the horrors of the lives of women imprisoned in the brothel, that it is women who are enslaved and sexually exploited by men.…”

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confidence: 99%