Bloodshed and Three Novellas (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Cynthia Ozick
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Novellas
- Genres: Long fiction, Fable
- Subjects: Values, Self-discovery, Tradition, Religion, Jews or Jewish life, Storytelling, Ethics, Holocaust, Jewish, Diplomacy or diplomats, Paganism
Form and Content
Cynthia Ozick begins Bloodshed and Three Novellas with a preface that explores the difficulty of using English to explain Jewish postulates and explains that “Usurpation,” the longest fiction in the book, is “a story written against story-writing, against the Muse-goddesses; against Apollo.” For this author, the act of creation carries the risk of breaking the Second Commandment’s injunction against making idols. Connecting these stories is Ozick’s focus on the problems involved in being Jewish in an essentially pagan, Hellenistic world.
...[The entire page is 2116 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
Related Topics
