What Do Jews Stand For? Muriel Rukeyser's Ethics of Identity

The Jew has been and remains one of the most potent figures in Western culture. In Muriel Rukeyser's poetry, Jewish figuration joins with other central involvements of hers—feminist, leftist, historical, poetic—in complex relationships that raise vital questions about the constitution of identity and the way the Jew both symbolizes and enacts challenges of difference and continuities of commitment.