Write Like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals by Dr. Ronnie Grinberg, University of Oklahoma
September 8, 2025 at noon | Lucy Ellis Lounge (LCLB 1080)
Write like a Man examines how masculinity and Jewishness were linked in the minds of the New York Intellectuals. Men and women, Jews and non-Jews in the group, all embraced a secular Jewish machismo that at its core prized verbal combativeness, problematical aggression, and an unflinching style of argumentation. This understanding of masculinity was an outsider stance when it first emerged in the 1930s. But in the years following World War II, the New York intellectuals became some of the most renowned critics and writers in the country, bringing their fractious masculinity to the mainstream of American life.
This talk focuses on the origins of the New York Intellectuals and their cerebral and combative vision of American Jewish masculinity, homing in how the scant women considered members navigated this sexist, milieu.