Identity and storytelling in Leah Morton's 'I am a Woman - and a Jew' and Anne Roiphe's 'Lovingkindness'

This thesis is an analysis of two novels by Jewish-American women writers who address the question of identity: Leah Morton's (Elizabeth Gertrude Stern) I am a Woman - and a Jew (1926) and Anne Roiphe's Lovingkindness (1987). More specifically this thesis addresses how the writers' construct, deconstruct and attempt to reconcile the three competing and often conflicting identities of Jewish, American, and woman by thematizing the role of storytelling and writing as well as employing various forms of identity in the negotiation of multiple identities.; Stern's novel, written in 1926 shortly after the Woman Movement, implements and integrates three distinct modes of storytelling, Jewish storytelling, autobiography, and the novel, and, thereby, creates a new fiction, a hybrid form, through which she resolves the conflicts between the three identities and reconciles them thematically.; Roiphe's 1987 novel, written after the Women's Movement, offers both an exploration and critique of the either/or stance and "tolerance" that arises from theories of radical multiculturalism and cultural relativism. Her solution extends the theory by suggesting that one must shift one's subject position in order to understand and to bring together two differing epistemologies: Orthodox Judaism and American feminism. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...