The Call Of Faith: Yasha's Puzzlement And Self-Redemption

Based on the analysis of The Magician of Lublin by Issac Bashevis Singer, the American Jewish writer, this thesis is to spotlight on the western spiritual puzzlement Jewish writers often concern themselves with, on the solution to their spiritual problems, and to discuss the universality of the solution in modern Western society. It also attempts to illustrate the rationality of the religious element in the solution. Starting from close reading, the thesis brings light to the protagonist's alienation, his vain search for absolute freedom, and the contradiction between the attractions of the secular world and of the peace only existing in a spiritual homeland. Employed by the author as an ending of the novel and a solution to the spiritual problem the protagonist encounters, Yasha's self-redemption is to reveal the religious element and the faith in God in the author's understanding. Adopting some notions from the critical theory of cultural poetics, I locate my textual analysis in the context of history, religion, philosophy, and sociology and try to reveal the intertextuality between literature and culture.Singer is a Jewish writer with a firm belief in the power of literature, who holds closely to the idea that literature is capable of bringing new horizons and new perspectives for human beings to resist meaninglessness and isolation. He "tries to solve the riddle of time and change, to find an answer to suffering, to reveal love in the very abyss of cruelty and injustice". ?A constant concern about human faith characterizes his literary works. As his masterpiece, The Magician of Lublin reveals the author's insight into faith. In this novel, Singer works out the essential feature of Judaism in a literary way, and interprets faith by following the protagonist's experience. Though Yasha, the protagonist, has not yet arrived at his ideal by his self-redemption, his efforts reveal some value to readers. Actually, what Singer means is not to release human beings from worldly troubles in a universal means, but to revealthe fact that modern people are less and less capable of keeping spiritual peace, as faith and religious tradition are moving further and further away from modern people.My analysis of The Magician of Lublin, based on a close examination of the literary text and relevant historical, cultural texts, concludes that the loss of faith and religious tradition plays an important part in the spiritual puzzlement and the disorderly system of value in the modern Western world. Hence, as Singer suggests, a return to the faith, which is regarded as a kind of spiritual power, could be the only way out leading to Westerners' rescue.After humanist and rationalist criticisms, religion can no longer dominate human mind. Singer, as a writer in the modem time, on the one hand struggles to shake off religious dominance in a setting of orthodox religion; but on the other hand, he is making great efforts to regain faith and peace by means of religion. His literary works are modernistic, existentialistic and theistic. The notion of God in his vision continues a heritage of traditional religion. Faith, in his stories, appears to be a spiritual power, which provides us with an unswerving life attitude and prevents our life from falling into fatal conflicts.