Sungolowsky, Joseph 1931-

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Sungolowsky, Joseph 1931-

PERSONAL:

Born December 21, 1931, in Charleroi, Belgium; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Aaron Gerson (a rabbi) and Esther Sungolowsky; married Honey Himelstein, August 20, 1967; children: Robert Yves, Elissa Jeanine. Ethnicity: "Jewish." Education: Yeshiva University, B.A., 1955, rabbi, 1958; New York University, M.A., 1958; Yale University, Ph.D., 1963. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Flushing, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Ordained rabbi, 1958; Yale University, New Haven, CT, instructor in French, 1958-62; Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, instructor, 1962-63, assistant professor of French, 1963-65; Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, NY, assistant professor, 1965-71, associate professor of French, 1972-84, professor of French and Jewish Studies, 1985-2000, professor emeritus, 2000—. Yeshiva University, adjunct professor of humanities at Stern College for Women.

MEMBER:

Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones en Amérique, Association Internationale Zola et le Naturalisme, American Society of the French Academic Palms.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Decorated chevalier, l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

WRITINGS:

Alfred de Vigny et le dix-huitième siècle, Nizet (Paris, France), 1968.

Beaumarchais, Twayne (New York, NY), 1974.

Contributor to books, including The Legacy of Primo Levi, edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor of articles and reviews to language and literary journals, including Cahiers naturalistes, Francographies, Etudes litteraires, and Excavatio.

SIDELIGHTS:

Joseph Sungolowsky once told CA: "As a professor of French literature, I write on subjects that grow out of my readings and teachings. From the beginning of my career to the present, I have specialized in French literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Within that field, I have been doing research and writing on the various genres, namely poetry, theater, and prose.

"Having been ordained as a rabbi after studying theology in addition to my training in literature, I have concentrated on historical, ethical, and religious themes perceived in the authors and literary trends that are of interest to me. Such themes may also provide me with the opportunity to examine political or sociological considerations as I did in a study titled ‘Flaubert and Zola and the Futility of Politics.’

"As a Jew, I have maintained an ongoing interest in the image of the Jew in French literature. I have followed the attitude towards Jews in the works of Vigny, Zola, Sartre, and Romain Gary, trying to ascertain the degree to which they have been sensitive to Jewish tradition and Jewish destiny. At the present time, I am particularly interested in the works of the French Jewish writer Edmond Fleg (1874-1963), whose writings have been instrumental in bringing about a reawakening of Jewish identity among a generation of assimilated French Jews in the first half of the twentieth century.

"Having spent a part of my childhood during the Holocaust in France, I have been following that theme in the works of authors who survived the concentration camps and wrote accounts in French such as Elie Wiesel, Samuel Pisar, and Primo Levi, and in the works of Romain Gary, who closely identified with the Holocaust. I am particularly interested in the relationship between autobiography and the Holocaust as presented in a study that I titled ‘Holocaust and Autobiography.’"