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History of Love Course Guide 

This guide will help you choose a topic, find sources, write your paper, and create a works cited page.
Last update: Sep 11th, 2009 URL: http://libguides.uta.edu/love  Print Guide  RSS Updates

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Literary connections

Literary connectionsAuthors whose names or works are mentioned in

The History of Love.

Bruno Schulz

  • Bruno Schulz - Street of Crocodiles  
      
    Krauss mentions this book more than once. Also, Bruno, Leo's friend, might be modeled on Bruno Schulz. It is possible that Street of Crocodiles served as an inspiration for the fictional History of Love.
  • Bruno Schulz - other work  
      
    Schulz was an avid visual artist as well as a writer.
  • Isaac Babel  
      
    Isaac Babel's obituary is also important because the style of Babel, as described by Leo, is the style of Leo as described by Zvi, as well as the style of Rosa, as described by third person narrator in first Zvi section.
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez  
      
    The final page of One Hundred Years of Solitude is essentially lifted and placed in the first section of the book. Like The History of Love, 100 Years is the story of generations and of a magical manuscript that tells their story.
  • Nicanor Parra  
      
    This poet's work brings Charlotte Singer to Isaac Moritz's attention. The astronaut pin Marcus says he wears refers to Parra's pin.
  • Philip Roth  
      
    American author who plays with the relationship of reality with fiction.
  • Miguel de Cervantes  
      
    Don Quixote is most likely the work Krauss had in mind.
  • William Shakespeare  
      
    Mistaken identity, lost love, dead parents, teenage romance-- Take your pick of plays to draw from.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  
      
    Notable 18th century German writer.
  • Jorge Luis Borges  
      
    Notable Argentine writer.
 
 

Possible paper topics

Paper topics

You may use any of the topics you like from this list, and you are free to change them to suit your interests and needs. In many cases they are linked to a relevant article or search. If the link is useful, use what you find there. If not, disregard it and look elsewhere.

  • Mythical elements, Bird and Bruno Schulz  
      
    Bird lives in a world of myth, and Bruno Schulz mythologizes childhood. Try using JSTOR and the keywords "Schulz" and "consciousness".
  • Reality vs. fiction (p. 9, p. 196)  
      
    Kruass uses both real and made-up elements to tell her story. What does this close pairing of reality and fiction do? Has anyone else used this idea? Search JSTOR using the keyword "fictional genre" as a beginning.
  • Visibility, sight, and memory  
      
    Leo is a man who makes no lasting impression; people in his novel believe they have parts made of glass. While delicate, glass can also be transparent. Try searching JSTOR with the keywords "sight and knowledge."
  • Connection to Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man?  
      
    Leo feels he is invisible, unnoticed. How does Leo compare to Ellison's unnamed narrator? You can also look in Academic Search Complete for articles dealing with Ellison's Invisible Man.
  • Memory and history  
      
    Relationship between memory and history in History of Love? Search JSTOR with an advanced search, limited to articles in the area of Language and Literature with the keywords "memory" and "history".
  • Love  
      
    Many kinds of love occur. Parental (for children, children for parents), sibling, friends, lovers. Both a helpful (p. 8) and a destructive force (Alma’s mother holding on to love for husband).
  • Locks and mysteries/being locked in or out  
      
    Leo is a locksmith who cannot unlock the one thing he really wants to (p.122). Locks are not unlike puzzles, which are not unlike mysteries. But the presence of a lock implies the existence of a key. If The History of Love is a lock, what is the key?
  • Translation  
      
    The History of Love is a book translated from Yiddish into Spanish by Zvi Litvinoff, then later into English by Alma's mother. Does meaning exist separately from the language something is written in? If so, can it survive translation?
  • Translation and plagiarism  
      
    When a work is translated, does the translator become part author? What happens when there are multiple translations of one work? Does identical interpretation equate to plagiarism? Search JSTOR for keywords "translation" and "plagiarism" together.
  • Creation and translation  
      
    What is the nature of a translator's work? Is it creative, like an art, or a skill, like a craft? Are somethings untranslatable? Is a translation a new work, separate from the original, or are they equivalent?
  • Translation, originality, and plagiarism  
      
    How do these ideas interrelate? Is our culture different from others in how we perceive the value of originality? How about through time-- how old is the idea of plagiarism?
  • Father and daughter. Death of a father.  
      
    What is the effect of a father's death on his daughter? Does any of this explain Alma's behavior or interests?
  • Father and son. Death of a father.  
      
    Does the death of a father affect a son differently than a daughter? How does Bird's reaction to his father's death differ from Alma's? Is there a difference in how a father's death is treated in Jewish tradition than Christian?
  • Authenticity/truth  
      
    Everyone believes that Zvi Litvinoff wrote The History of Love, not its true author, Leo Gursky. Does that misapprehension diminish the novel? What value does truth have if it changes nothing of significance?
  • Impulse to create. Wittgenstein.  
      
    Krauss quotes Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher whose ideas have influenced much 20th century thought. How do his ideas apply to The History of Love?
  • Survival  
      
    Is there a relationship between Alma's interest in wilderness survival and Leo's Holocaust survival? Does successful survival have anything to do with being seen, being visible? Try searching JSTOR with the keywords "survival" and "jewish".
  • Childhood and Bruno Schulz  
      
    Schulz, in Street of Crocodiles, writes from the perspective of a child. History of Love includes two child narrators. Try searching JSTOR with the keyword "bruno schulz".
  • Plagiarism/attribution  
      
    Leo and Zvi. Alma and her mother. Isaac and Marcus. Several characters pretend to be other people, sometimes fictional people, for various purposes. Try searching Project Muse with the keywords "romanticism" and "plagiarism".
  • Being American/cultural identity  
      
    What is it to be American? When do you stop being something else and become American? What does it mean to have a cultural identity? Try searching Science Direct (or JSTOR) with the phrase "racial authenticity".
  • Hope  
      
    Loss of hope repeatedly leads to misfortune: Leo's Alma, Zvi, Alma's mother. Does hope by itself have an appreciable positive effect within the world of Krauss's The History of Love?
  • Relationship among words, names, and silence?  
      
    Take a look at these pages of The History of Love: (p. 199, p. 126, p. 156). For comparison, go to the fourth floor of the Central Library to BS195, choose a Bible and read the first few hundred words of Genesis. Or is there something else going on?
  • Flashlights  
      
    Several important acts occur by flashlight. Leo picking locks, Alma reading History of Love (p.106), Zvi burying the original manuscript (149, 181). Is this significant? Or is it more significant that these things are done at night?
  • Illness  
      
    Zvi’s cough, seasickness (p.110), Alma’s dad’s cancer, Isaac’s Hodgkin’s, Leo’s heart, Leo's Alma’s morning sickness. Illness plays a role in The History of Love-- is it random, or does it serve a purpose?
  • Place  
      
    Twenty or thirty specific places around the world, both countries and cities, are directly referred to. Characters come from a wide variety of countries across the world, and the novel takes place on three continents. Why?
  • Imagination/delusion  
      
    Bird builds an Ark, Leo imagines Bruno, Alma’s mother continues to love a dead man, Alma tries to find her mother a new man. What motivates these actions?
  • Bird as a lamed vovnik  
      
    What is the importance of Bird's retreat into religious fantasy? Is it a retreat? Does it related to Leo in any way?
  • Books featuring fictional works of literature  
      
    Here's a list of books that include references to books that don't actually exist, just like Leo's History of Love, and Words for Everything.
  • Imaginary companions  
      
    Either overtly or subtly, characters in The History of Love have imaginary companions. What is the significance?
  • Jewish survival and migration  
      
    Leo survives the Holocaust and comes to New York. Zvi survives and goes to South America. Using this GIS tool, you can examine the actual population change and migration of Jewish people in the 1930s and 40s.
  • Unknown father/unknown child  
      
    Leo and Isaac each knows the other exists, but do not know each other personally. Bird barely knew his father. How does the absent father affect these characters? Is it different if the father is dead, or alive but absent?
  • Astronauts  
      
    Marcus says he wears an astronaut pin, which is a reference drawn from the poet Nicanor Parra. Alma has a space pen, and space travel is mentioned.
  • Assimilation  
      
    What is involved in becoming part of a new group? What is left behind, what is added?
  • Origins/Heritage  
      
    In The History of Love, many characters come from different places, different cultures. How do their origins influence their actions and reactions?
  • Stories and storytellers  
      
    How do the different stories, and stories within stories interrelate? Why are there so many storytellers? Some people even tell the same story. And some stories profoundly affect several of the characters, either by hearing or telling them.
  • Ways of knowing  
      
    How do we gather knowledge about the world? What methods do characters in The History of Love use, and how do those methods work out for them? Which ones do you rely on?
  • Journeys  
      
    Think of this either literally or metaphorically. Or both. Bird tries to travel to Israel because he believes he must go there to become who he is meant to be. Alma is on a journey to discover the first Alma. And there are a lot more.
  • Research  
      
    Alma is the obvious focus here, but there's more if you look. What role does research play? How useful is it as a way of knowing, or learning? In the novel, does engaging in research end in the results expected by the person who started it?
  • Discovery  
      
    Like research, but without the intent to learn. How does discovery take place? What is its effect?
  • Growing up/aging  
      
    Some characters are wrapped up in growing and aging (Alma, Leo), while others are, or seem to be frozen (Alma's father, her mother, Bird, Isaac). Growing up versus growing old-- anything interesting there?
  • Dislocation/diaspora/displacement  
      
    People are forced to leave their homes, and must make a life elsewhere. How is this different than leaving by choice? What additional struggles does forced displacement add?
 

Subject Guide

Profile ImageJoshua Vossler
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Subjects:
English literature, English composition, humanities research

 
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