Anita Steckel, NY Skyline on Canvas #5 (Eat Your Power, Honey, Before It Grows Cold), USA, ca. 1970–1972; Jewish Museum Berlin
JMB Book Club – Portnoy’s Fear of Flying
Part of the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions (in German)
“This book will make literary history.” – Henry Miller on “Fear of Flying”
“The most outrageously funny book about sex yet written.” – The Guardian on “Portnoy’s Complaint”
Read along!
For the exhibition Sex: Jewish Positions, the JMB book club first looked at the Song of Songs. It now turns to two books that revolutionized perspectives on sex – and not just Jewish ones: Sexual desire, psychoanalysis and grappling with tradition are at the heart of both Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth (1969) and Fear of Flying by Erica Jong (1973). Both were considered shocking and outrageous in their day, but what do they tell us now, 50 years later, about sexual obsession and liberation, about rule-breaking and conformity?
Past event
Where
W. M. Blumenthal Academy, Library
Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz 1, 10969 Berlin
Postal address: Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin
In conversation with author Dana von Suffrin, we rediscover the grand old man of American literature and the outspoken feminist.
Note: Both books are available for delivery and from the JMB Museum shop. And, as if we ourselves had arranged it, a new German translation of Fear of Flying was published on June 25, 2024 by the publishing house ECCO Verlag.
Sex: Jewish Positions: Features & Programme
- Exhibition Webpage
- Sex: Jewish Positions: Exhibition, 17 May to 6 Oct 2024
- Publications
- Sex. Jüdische Positionen: Catalog accompanying the exhibition, German edition, 2024
- Sex: Jewish Positions: Catalog accompanying the exhibition, English edition, 2024
- Digital Content
- Letʼs Talk About Sex: Online feature accompanying the exhibition
- What do the artists say? Interview series accompanying the exhibition
- Listen to the exhibition’s soundtrack: Playlist on Spotify
- The Song of Songs. Between Literal and Allegorical Loves: Essay by Ilana Pardes
- “Sex Is A Force:” Interview with Talli Rosenbaum
- Androgynous Characters in I.B. Singer’s Literary Shtetl: Essay by Helena Lutz
- Jewish Places: Find information about Jewish sites related to the exhibition on our interactive map
