ABSTRACT
A national approach in the study of literatures constitutes the norm. Since 1492, America has been a volatile geopolitical site with perpetual struggles over space, place, and boundaries characterized by constant linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural crossovers that have enabled the manifestation of literatures which disrupt linear, national literary histories. Whereas the study of Caribbean cultures and literatures has often been Afro-centric, the literary histories of Latin America have treated black authors “as natives, as subjects of polemics, or as actors in a coherent literary history”. Jewish literary culture in the USA can be traced back to the twenty-three Sephardic Jews – of Spanish and Portuguese descent – refugees to New Netherland, who arrived from the Dutch colony Recife, Brazil, after Portugal took over the settlement and expanded the Inquisition to the Americas in 1654.
