Resumen de The Golems take New York: the resurgence of the Golem in the work of Cynthia Ozick and Thane Rosenbaum
- español
A finales del siglo XX y principios del XXI el personaje del Golem resurge en muchas novelas americanas importantes. ¿Por qué? Las novelas “Los papeles de Puttermesser”, de Cynthia Ozick, y “Los Golems de Gotham”, de Thane Rosembaum, son ejemplos de una reinvención del golem como criatura que puede curar a toda la sociedad, no solo ayudar a los judíos. Ozick crea un golcm mujer (sin precedentes en la literatura) y Rosenbaum inventa golcms literarios. En las dos novelas, los nuevos golems pueden ayudar a cambiar las cosas para los habitantes de Nueva York. que sienten la melancolía del fin de siglo.
- English
The late twentieth and early twenty first centuries have seen a resurgence of the golem in several major American novels. What factors might lead to such a reimagining of the golem in American fiction? Cynthia Ozick's “The Puttermesser Papers” (1997) and Thane Rosenbaum's The Golems of Gotham (2002) re-invent golems no longer anchored in vengeance but in healing, as vehicles for the kabbalistic notion of “Tikkun Olam” (“repairing the world”). Ozick creates the first female golem to help the lonely protagonist become a reformist mayor; in The Golems of Gotham, the golem is transformed into a team of literary golems who storm Manhattan not only to heal the grief-stricken protagonist but to cure a city from injustices. In these two novels, the golem is updated as a crusader who addresses both the ills of citizens and a collective “fin de siècle” melancholy.
