“The Jew in the Crown” will offer a brief examination of the ambiguous role of the semitic anti-hero in English literature; anti-heroes such as Shylock, Fragin, and Svengali, whose half-life continues to radiate.

Clive Sinclair has published 13 books of fiction, travel, and autobiography, some of which have been given prizes. Early in his career he was selected as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists. His most acclaimed collection of stories – The Lady and the Laptop – won both the PEN Silver pen for fiction, and the Jewish Quarterly award for fiction. An earlier collection, Bedbugs, was recently republished by Syracuse University Press in its Library of Modern Jewish Literature. In 2008 he published Clive Sinclair’s True Tales of the Wild West, an exercise in Dodgy Realism. He also leads a double-life as an academic and critic: he has published a study of Isaac Bashevis and Israel Joshua Singer – The Brothers Singer – and writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement. His association with UCSC began in 1969, when he arrived from England as a graduate student; it continued in 1980-81, when he returned as a Visiting Lecturer, as he did again in 2003.

Presented by the Center for Jewish Studies, with generous support from the David B. Gold Foundation. Staff support is provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.