Bücher von Sam B. Girgus

From generation to generation, three outstanding American Jewish directors¿William Wyler, Sidney Lumet, and Steven Spielberg--advance a tradition of Jewish writers, artists, and leaders who propagate the ethical basis of the American Idea and Creed. They strive to renew the American spirit by insisting that America must live up to its values and ideals. These directors accentuate the ethical responsibility for the other as a basis of the American soul and a source for strengthening American liberal democracy. In the manner of the jeremiad, their films challenge America to achieve a liberal democratic culture for all people by becoming more inclusive and by modernizing the American Idea. Following an introduction that relates aspects of modern ethical thought to the search for Americäs soul, the book divides into three sections. The Wyler section focuses on the director¿s social vision of a changing America. The Lumet section views his films as dramatizing Lumet¿s dynamicand aggressive social and ethical conscience. The Spielberg section tracks his films as a movement toward American redemption and renewal that aspires to realize Lincoln¿s vision of America as the hope of the world. The directors, among many others, perpetuate a ¿New Covenant¿ that advocates change and renewal in the American experience.

From generation to generation, three outstanding American Jewish directors-William Wyler, Sidney Lumet, and Steven Spielberg--advance a tradition of Jewish writers, artists, and leaders who propagate the ethical basis of the American Idea and Creed.

Girgus defines the American idea as the set of values, beliefs, and traditions of democracy, equality, and republicanism and argues that writers of the New Covenant tradition challenged society to live up to its own imperatives for individual and cultural renewal.

This work attempts to develop a new understanding of democratic individualism and liberal humanism in American literature under the rubric of literary modernism.