Arbitrary Ruptures: The Making of History in Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007)

Authors

  • Birte Otten

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.127

Abstract

Michael Chabon’s alternate history novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union“ (2007) is one of a few novels of that genre that have received recognition from beyond its fan community. This essay argues that the novel’s success can be attributed to its thematic participation in a post-9/11 public discourse which addresses and complements the generic conventions of alternate history.

Author Biography

Birte Otten

Birte Otten received her M.A. in English, Political Science, and Social Psychology from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 2007. In 2003, she received a scholarship for the Education Abroad Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently writing her dissertation about the historical imagination in American alternate history novels. Her research interests include 20th-century American literature, Southern literature, and narratology.

Downloads

How to Cite

Otten, Birte. “Arbitrary Ruptures: The Making of History in Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007)”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 11, Mar. 2012, doi:10.5283/copas.127.

Issue

Vol. 11 (2010)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.