Amy Levy and the “Jewish Literary Complex” with Dr. Luke Devine

Amy Levy (1861-1889) belongs to a tradition of Anglo-Jewish writing typical of the modern diaspora. Levy’s essays, poetry, and novels wrestle with the context of the Haskalah, Jewish emancipation, and political Zionism, set against a national background of imperialism, social Darwinism, and antisemitism. The Levy corpus shows how she struggled with her own Jewish identity, Christian cultural and literary hegemony, and with making sense of the Jewish past, biblical tradition, and communal life.

In this talk coinciding with the publication of Amy Levy: Collected Writings, which contains many new texts previously unseen by readers and scholars, Dr. Luke Devine, Senior Lecturer at University of Worcester, will examine the significance of Levy’s writings, their place in the context of what scholar Dan Miron has called the “Jewish literary complex,” and how they can help make sense of Levy’s complex biography.