《<赫索格>視域下的索爾·貝婁猶太意識(英文版)》力圖運用文化詩學理論對貝婁的代表作《赫索格》進行文化解讀,旨在探討貝婁的猶太意識。猶太意識強調猶太文化的傳統意義和文化價值,就《赫索格》而言,該書通過描述生活在西方主流文化中的猶太知識分子的生存體驗,將這種意識表現為邊緣感、異化感、尋根性和尋本性。《赫索格》揭示了猶太知識分子的生存困境、精神困境和心路歷程。作者在這部小說中選擇猶太人作為自己敘事的視角,以文學的方式關注猶太人的生存狀況和生命體驗,展現猶太民族特有的文化品性和氣質,這正是本書要探討的中心問題。
著名的美籍猶太作家索爾·貝婁(1915-2005)是可與海明威和福克納相媲美的小說家,他一生共發表了十一部長篇小說及其他幾部短篇小說、散文集和劇本。1976年,貝婁因“對當代文化富于人性的理解和精妙的分析”獲諾貝爾文學獎。1964年發表的小說《赫索格》是貝婁的代表作,這部小說真實地表現了猶太知識分子在現代社會中的苦悶與迷惘、追求與探索。
本書力圖運用文化詩學理論對貝婁的代表作《赫索格》進行文化解讀,旨在探討貝婁的猶太意識。猶太意識強調猶太文化的傳統意義和文化價值,就《赫索格》而言,該書通過描述生活在西方主流文化中的猶太知識分子的生存體驗,將這種意識表現為邊緣感、異化感、尋根性和尋本性。《赫索格》揭示了猶太知識分子的生存困境、精神困境和心路歷程。作者在這部小說中選擇猶太人作為自己敘事的視角,以文學的方式關注猶太人的生存狀況和生命體驗,展現猶太民族特有的文化品性和氣質,這正是本書要探討的中心問題。
貝婁的猶太意識以人文主義為核心,以現代性和世界性為依歸。作為生活在20世紀的美國猶太移民中的一份子,貝婁倡導在猶太傳統文化與美國主流文化之間建構一種多元的文化共生的局面。他不滿傳統文學在揭露社會和表現人性時過于悲觀的態度,提倡作家要與社會通過“對話”實現“交流”,以此在文明的廢墟上重塑高貴的人性,樹立人文主義的旗幟。《赫索格》的敘事聚焦于作家最為熟悉的猶太知識分子的精神危機,以探討倫理和道德問題為手段,以猶太文化中的人類關懷為目標,昭示猶太人乃至現代人的普遍生活境遇與生存法則。由此可見,貝婁的猶太意識實際上是一種普遍人性意識,既關注猶太人的生命情懷,又能照見全人類的生存理念。這種超越狹隘種族偏見的猶太意識成就了《赫索格》一書的文化品格,也彰顯了貝婁的人文主義關懷和世界性視野。
彭濤,女,湖南常德人。2006年中南大學外國語學院英語語言文學專業碩士研究生畢業,現任吉林大學珠海學院教師,從事英美文學和大學英語方面的教學,主要研究美國猶太文學。主持完成2011—2012學年吉林大學珠海學院院內立項課題“索爾·貝婁猶太意識”;主持2014—2015學年吉林大學珠海學院學院創新能力培育工程項目之人文社科創新項目“索爾·貝婁小說的倫理觀研究”。2013年入選吉林大學珠海學院“百人工程”骨干教師培養計劃項目,先后在《圣經文學研究》《外語與翻譯》《作家》等期刊上發表論文10余篇。
Introduction
Chapter 1 Formation of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
1.1 Cultural Sources of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
1.1.1 Jewish Culture
1.1.2 American Culture
1.2 Cultural Mechanism of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
Chapter 2 Concern for the Jewish Intellectuals: Core of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
2.1 Bellow's Jewish Life Experience in Herzog
2.2 Moses Elkanah Herzog: a Modern Parody of the Moses of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible
2.3 Jewishness of Herzog Representing the Kernels of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
2.3.1 Marginality
2.3.2 Alienation
2.3.3 Homeland-quest
2.3.4 Self-identification
Chapter 3 Concern for the Humanity: Sublimation of Bellow's Jewish Consciousness
3.1 Moses Elkanah Herzog: a Person Fighting for Survival
3.2 Cosmopolitan Quality and Vision in Herzog
3.2.1 Global Marginality
3.2.2 Global Alienation
3.2.3 In Quest of an Everlasting Human Soul
3.2.4 In Pursuit of an Everlasting Human Identity
3.3 Toward Humanism-oriented Cosmopolitanism
Conclusion
Appendix 1 Saul Bellow's Nobel Lecture
Appendix 2 Saul Bellow's Banquet Speech
Appendix 3 Towards a Poetics of Culture (excerpt)
Acknowledgements
References
Index
《<赫索格>視域下的索爾·貝婁猶太意識(英文版)》:
2.3.3 Homeland-quest
Though "for our sin we are exiled from our land" (llerzog, 91), Moses Herzog, marginalized and alienated, still claims to have "a change of heart-a true change of heart" (llerzog, 201). His desire to root out the moral sin and wipe out his neurosis so as to find out a homeland or a "spiritual ghetto" is closely related to Jewish history and Jewish destiny.
Jewish history is history of exile. Owing to religious and ethnic reasons,Jews by origin suffered the burden of homelessness and exile both physically and emotionally Their historical experience can be described as follows:
From Abraham, the history of the Jewish people traces through the patriarchs to the exile in Egypt, the subsequent exodus and the giving of the Torah and execution of the covenant, the conquest Canaan, the Judges, the Monarchy and the later division into two kingdoms, the Babylonian exile and the return under Ezra and Nehemiah, the Hasmoneans, the subsequent loss of independence and destruction of the Temple by the Romans, the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world for centuries. (Rubinstein, 2002: 143)
It is generally confirmed that "Exile or Diaspora [...] [becomes] a constant feature of Jewish experience" (Eisenstadt, 2004: 30). The reason why Jews can survive the cruel history lies in the fact that Jews have transformed suffering by means ofirony and a celebration of endurance. The endurance comes from their intense wish for a homeland, therefore, homeland-quest embodies the Jewish people's wish, feeling and a profound cultural quality. It shows that no matter how hard the life is, Jewry's resolution to cling to life so as to find a homeland would not be wavered.
Howe says, "the virtue of powerlessness, the power of helplessness, the company of the dispossessed, the sanctity of the insulted and injured-these, finally, are the great themes of Yiddish literature" (qtd. in Clayton, 1986: 66).There is no doubt that Bellow absorbs the valuable elements of the Yiddish literature. Even though Herzog who Bellow creates endures the unbearable marginality and the immeasurable alienation, he commits a moral sin against himself. Fortunately he keeps his faith in Judaism that consists of the beliefin God, the beliefin Man and the beliefin brotherhood to solve his predicament.He, a Jew and an expert sufferer, "owes God a human life" (llerzog, 272), and he does "continue to believe in God (llerzog, 231), therefore "He could not allow himself to die yet" (llerzog, 27), and "his duty is to live" (llerzog, 27) and quest for his "spiritual ghetto".
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