Norman Mailer’s Later Fictions pp 73-84 | Cite as
A Jew for Jesus? A Jewish Reading of Norman Mailer’s The Gospel According to the Son
Abstract
A number of years ago, when I was at a party in Norman Mailer’s house, I asked him about his latest novel. He told me that it was a reworking of the Gospels. I warned him that the last Jew to do that, Sholem Asch, was almost excommunicated for attempting such an endeavor.” While no such fate awaited Mailer on the publication of The Gospel According to the Son in 1997, its critical reception shows that the problems for Jews who write on or who use Christian iconography has not abated since that earlier text, The Nazarene, was published in 1939. Nonetheless, Mailer’s novel follows a long tradition in American Literature, developing directly out of his lifelong literary and theological concerns.
Keywords
American Literature Monthly Journal Jewish Writer North American Literature Norman MailerPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Works Cited
- Asch, Sholem. The Nazarene. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939.Google Scholar
- Ashton, John. Understanding the Fourth Gospel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
- Bottum. J. “The Gospel According to the Son.” First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life 75 (1997): 53–54.Google Scholar
- Feidelson, Charles Jr. Symbolism and American Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.Google Scholar
- Gelernter, David. “The Gospel According to the Son.” National Review 49:14 (28 July 1997): 55.Google Scholar
- Gold, Michael. Jews without Money. New York: Avon Books, 1965.Google Scholar
- Gordon, Mary. “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” The Nation. 264:24 (June 23, 1997). 7.Google Scholar
- Heinemann, Isaak, ed., Three Jewish Philosophers. New York: Atheneum, 1969.Google Scholar
- Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.Google Scholar
- Lieberman, Chaim. The C hristianity of Sholem Asch. New York: Philosophical Library, 1953.Google Scholar
- Madison, Charles. Yiddish Literature: Its Scope and Major Writers. New York: Schocken Books, 1971.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. Advertisements for Myself. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. An American Dream. New York: Dell, 1970.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. The Gospel According to the Son. New York: Random House, 1997.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead. London: Hamilton and Co., 1964.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. Of a Fire on the Moon. New York: New American Library, 1971.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. Presidential Papers. New York: Berkley Medallion Books, 1970.Google Scholar
- Mailer, Norman. The Spooky Art. New York: Random House, 2003.Google Scholar
- Miles, Jack. Commonweal 124:13 (18 July 1997): 21.Google Scholar
- Ozick, Cynthia. Bloodshed and Three Novellas. New York: New American Library, 1977.Google Scholar
- Poirier, Richard. Mailer. London: Wm. Collins Sons, 1972.Google Scholar
- Potok, Chaim. My Name Is Asher Lev. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.Google Scholar
- Shaikh, Nermeen. “Interview with Norman Mailer.” Nextbook Reader 4 (Spring 2007): 3.Google Scholar
- Sherman, Bernard: The Invention of the Jew: Jewish-American Education Novels (1916–1964). Cranbury: N.J. Thomas Yoseloff, 1969.Google Scholar
- Wallant, Edward Lewis. Children at the Gate. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1964.Google Scholar
- Wallant, Edward Lewis. Unpublished Papers: Wallant Collection. Beinecke Library, New Haven, CN.Google Scholar
- Wood, James. The New Republic 216:21 (May 1997): 30.Google Scholar