Benjamin Schreier

Professional Bio

My work is anchored in post-1900 American literature and critical theory, and the major focus of my research is an analysis of identity and intellectuality in literature and literary scholarship. I specialize in Jewish American literature and culture, though I have recently begun a project on Arab American literature. I am dedicated to close reading and am ardent in my belief that literary critics need to theorize our reading practices.

My most recent book is The Rise and Fall of Jewish American Literature: Ethnic Studies and the Challenge of Identity (Penn Press, 2020). I am also the author of The Impossible Jew: Identity and the Reconstruction of Jewish American Literature (NYU Press, 2015) and The Power of Negative Thinking: Cynicism and the History of Modern American Literature (UVA Press, 2009). And I am the editor of Studies in Irreversibility: Texts and Contexts (2007) and the co-editor with Jonathan Eburne of The Year's Work in Nerds, Wonks, and Neocons (2017).

I regularly teach undergraduate courses on American literature, Jewish American literature, ethnic literature, and American comedy. At the graduate level, I've recently taught seminars in Contemporary Political Novels, American Modernism, Jewish American Literature, The New York Intellectuals and Intellectual Theory, and the 20th century American Novel.

Since 2012 I have been the editor of the journal Studies in American Jewish Literature.