Double Diversity

Jewish Women Writers in Canada

Authors

  • Catherine Caufield Concordia University of Edmonton

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39524

Keywords:

Jewish, Canada, history, women, poetry, novel, short story, Canadian literature, Jewish literature

Abstract

This article is based on Our Canada: Jewish-Canadian Women Writers, a federally funded research project exploring the literary output of more than one hundred women authors in this country, together with the body of commentary on their work. Elucidating themes of immigration, tradition, identity, family, hope, and strengthening connections, the prose and poetry of these authors prods us to think about what Canada means and what these authors have contributed to our shared cultural imaginary. This literature serves to deepen our understanding of broadly diverse nations-both Jewish and Canadian. It is timely in terms of current reflection, examination and questioning of the multicultural paradigm that has shaped Canadian identity for over thirty years. Nothing is more challenging than grasping, or attempting to grasp, the mindset of others with radically different understandings and beliefs. Part of this challenge are the social and political implications of how particular individuals within particular communities have understood themselves and their place in the Canadian mosaic-often over generations. The contributions of Jewish women writers to Canadian literature respond to this challenge, beginning in the late nineteenth century in Montréal, developing in key centres across the country, and continuing in the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

  • Catherine Caufield, Concordia University of Edmonton

    Catherine Caufield, PhD (Toronto) is interested in polysemic expression of religious experience, and ways in which diverse discourses co-exist within and between religions. She has received a number of awards, including a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and a Foreign Government Award with the Government of Mexico. She has published dozens of articles in refereed journals, as well as the books Hermeneutical Approaches to Religious Discourse in Mexican Narrative (2003) and Shmiot Fugue: Neomysticism in the Voices of Three Jewish-Mexican Women Writers (2017).

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Published

2020-07-23

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Caufield, C. (2020). Double Diversity: Jewish Women Writers in Canada. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 33(1), 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.39524