MASKING STATUS: COSTUME AND EGO VEILING IN LITERATURE. A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN LITERARY TEXTURES. THE JEWISH IDENTITY’S NEW CLOTHES. AMERICAN-JEWISH CLOTHING HABITS IN FICTION

👤Author

Name: Cristina Deutsch
Affiliation: Institute of Literary History and Theory “G. Călinescu” of the Romanian Academy

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Deutsch, Cristina. “Masking status: costume and Ego veiling in literature. A comparative study in literary textures. The Jewish identityʼs new clothes. American-Jewish clothing habits in fiction”. Synthesis, no. XXXIX, 2012, pp. 35-45.
Title: MASKING STATUS: COSTUME AND EGO VEILING IN LITERATURE. A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN LITERARY TEXTURES. THE JEWISH IDENTITY’S NEW CLOTHES. AMERICAN-JEWISH CLOTHING HABITS IN FICTION
Pages: 35-45
Language: English
URL: https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2012/XXXIX/5_Deutsch.pdf

Abstract

The study tries to catch the relationship between more directions of comparative literature, focusing mainly on the relation between Fashion Studies and Minority Studies. The departure point is that of the literary character as a “dressed body” that institutes a mask that could have various interpretative directions. Costume as fashion is seen as an auctorial device for defining the literary character’s Ego, transforming “texture” into ‘text”. The analysis is based on the American Jewish fiction, from Anzia Yezierska to Isaac Bashevis Singer and Philip Roth and it constitutes only the part of a bigger study that analyzes the link between literature and fashion.

Keywords: fashion theory; Jewish American fiction; interculturalism; comparative literature; queer studies.