Dramatic Encounters: The Jewish Presence in Twentieth-Century American Drama, Poetry, and Humor and the Black-Jewish Literary Relationship

There is so much to Louis Harap's three volumes, this extraordinary trilogy, that a reviewer can only hint at the depth, penetrating intelligence, research, and insight of the author. This is a monumental work. American Jewish Archives

This volume, the final one in a three-part series on the Jewish presence in twentieth-century American literature, first examines the special literary relationship of Blacks and Jews as exemplified in the writings of the two groups. Harap locates the historical roots of this relationship in Black folklore and history and finds illustrations of it in the work of Black novelists from Richard Wright to Paule Marshall. He examines the partial breakdown of this relationship in both social and literary terms during the 1970s.