| Saul Bellow(1915-2005)was one of the most important Jewish-American writers of the 20 th century.In his more than sixty years of writing,Bellow contributed eleven full-length novels and many short works to the world of literature,in which the concern for modernity and the humanitarian concern for isolated individuals were the main elements of his work.With his profound humanistic cultivation and meticulous insight into contemporary culture,Bellow has provided the world’s literary world with such classic images as Joseph,the Rain King,Henderson,Moses Herzog and Charlie Citrin.But at the same time,the portrayal of women in Bellow’s work has also sparked long-standing controversy and criticism.Madeleine,Lenada,Denise,Marguerite......compared to the three-dimensional vivid male protagonists,these female images seem flat and distorted? If so,how do their "distortions" relate to the socio-historical context? What are the subjective motives of the writer’s "distorted" portrayals? How did Bellow adapt his writing strategy in the face of critical skepticism? What is the effect? Did the writer put a richer sentiment in the male figure than in the female figure? All these questions are to be sorted out and answered from the perspective of feminist criticism.The achievements and shortcomings of Bellow’s writing reflect the splendor and crisis of Western civilization,while feminist criticism provides the perspective and scale for questioning Western culture.Jewish ethnic identity and American life experience provide the skeleton for the values in Bellow’s novels,as well as a constant source of material and inspiration for his creative practice.At the same time,Bellow’s novels also show the writer’s mixed attitude toward social reality and artistic creation.For example,in his youth,Bellow was also keen to follow Trotsky’s footsteps,but the subsequent loss of revolutionary beliefs made the writer conservative position on the social movement of the New Left;and although he came from a Jewish family,but due to the prevalence of anti-Semitism,and the fear of national labels to cover the connotation of the text and other factors,Bellow for a long time did not want to be a "Jewish writer " Finally,although Bellow claimed to oppose the isolation of the individual in modernist writing,he often used the isolated individual as the protagonist in his works.These contradictory conceptual positions often unfold in both directions in his novels,with deep reflection and humorous strokes,making the works full of dialectical tension.In addition,the writer’s personal marital life and emotional experiences also have a direct impact on the portrayal of women and gender concepts in his works.The four failed marriages and the continuous divorce lawsuits are all reflected in his literary works.The family glimpse in the Talmud,in which the husband studies the scriptures and the wife performs internal and external chores,is the ideal family structure for the heroes in most of Bellow’s novels.At the same time,this individual-centered fantasy,detached from the context of the times,is also the main cause of their marital disagreement and family rift.At its root,it is clear that the traditional Jewish concept of the family no longer meets contemporary women’s expectations of marriage.So while Bellow’s heroes try to emulate the Jewish tradition of the "contemplative man in the study",their wives may no longer be able to accept those dogmas and precepts wholesale.On a more general level,Bellow’s conservative stance in the American social movement of the1960 s,his expectation of the traditional housewife,confronted feminist accusations of the trend toward becoming a housewife as a life dream.What he tried to retain was what the feminists were whipping into shape to abandon.As the tide of the times sweeps in,Bellow’s conceptions of family and gender are shaken to the core.Taking The Gift of Humboldt and The Adventures of Augie March as examples,the construction of female figures in Bellow’s works is roughly divided into two directions.One kind of "Humboldt’s Gift" such as Denise and Lenada,indulging in desire and enjoyment,beautiful but dangerous.They embody the split between the protagonist’s desire for his lover and his innate misogynistic tendencies,and the double standard between his genuine desire for love and sex leads him into an emotional dilemma.Another kind of Catherine and "The Adventures of Augie March" in Rebecca,they are pure but cowardly,willing to give,and even seem a little stupid.These figures occupy the position of what Eichner calls "divine intermediaries," whose symbolic emptiness makes them simultaneously pure and insignificant,and only in this passive and non-aggressive auxiliary state can the women in the text gain the sympathy and respect of their male creators.In essence,these two types of images are two different forms of female repression in patriarchal texts,and they are one and the same.In the face of scholarly criticism of her conception of gender,Bellow presents The Dean’s December as a rebuttal.In the novel,Bellow focuses on the "myth of the woman" inside and outside the family.Within the family,the couple supports each other against political oppression;outside the family,Valeria leads a "community of female love" in contrast to the dark life of political opinion in Chicago.Yet both the "wife who leaves home" and the "strong woman" appear more than once in Bellow’s work.By deconstructing the development sequence of these two female images,it is possible to discover the protagonist’s anxiety for his wife’s return to the family,which is latent in the construction of the "female myth",and the textual strategy of constructing a great female image by replacing gender roles.Through the dialectical discussion of the two "feminine myths," the thesis strives to avoid a monistic view of Belleau’s view of women and their development that is either wholly positive or wholly negative.In the early works,the writers are careful to express their desire for fatherly identity.This expression often appears in the guise of mythological archetypes,and uses the father-son ethics of the archetypes as a metaphor for the lack of fatherly love and father-son conflicts in reality,which extends to the identity anxiety and social identity of the protagonists.In the middle and later works,Sedgwick’s so-called "male homosexual social desires" have been expressed in a straightforward manner.The protagonists are more eager for same-sex recognition than the opposite sex,and they recognize the value standards of the same sex.Their desire for same-sex alliance is evident in the works,where homophobia,repressed gay male tendencies and conflicts between masculinities are embedded,deconstructing and sustaining male alliances.Saul Bellow’s literary creations reveal gender imaginaries and value standards in patriarchal consciousness,and the construction of roles and judgments in his works are intensely personal.At the same time,as a curved mirror for mapping historical landscapes,Bellow’s novels also convey in a twisted way the existential situation of women in a patriarchal society and the paradoxes that middle-class American intellectuals may encounter in their married lives. |
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