The Jewish Complex Of Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow is a major contemporary American-Jewish writer and his"stature in the postwar American letters can only be compared to that of Hemingway or Faulkner earlier in this century."He is assiduous in depicting the dilemma and perplexity in our human life. In his writing career, which lasted for over half a century, Saul Bellow produced a substantial body of fiction including eleven novels, a great number of short stories, some plays and critical essays. In 1976, the Nobel Prize came to Saul Bellow for his"humanistic understanding and subtle analysis of the contemporary culture."Among his notable literary creations, it is Herzog that brought Bellow into the highlight of popular attention and established his stature in the American literary arena.The thesis aims to approach Saul Bellow's Jewish feeling and the profound Jewish elements exhibited in Herzog in order to unlock the connotation of the novel.The thesis consists of five parts. The introduction presents a literature review on Herzog as well as the related literary theory.Chapter I offers a presentation of Saul Bellow's life and cultural experiences and a brief survey of Herzog. Born in 1915 in Quebec, Saul Bellow underwent a lot of conflicts and hardships in his life. His life experiences provide affluent source material for his writing. In Herzog the detailed accounts of the protagonist and other characters have much source from Bellow's own life. Most of the protagonists in Bellow's fiction are Jewish intellectuals, who are deeply concerned about the existential situation of the Jews as well as that of the whole human being. As a Jewish writer, Saul Bellow's fiction has deep-rooted Jewish elements, manifesting the everlasting charms of the Jewish culture. Therefore, revealing the Jewish elements rooted in Herzog is the key to a better understanding of its connotation.Chapter II aims to exhibit the internal relationship between Herzog and the Jewish culture in terms of the characters and themes, revealing Saul Bellow's sentimental attachment to the longstanding Jewish culture. First, the name of the protagonist in Herzog is Moses Herzog, which has a strong religious overtone, and makes us associate it with the Moses in Bible. Moses was the national hero of the Jews, taking on the heavy responsibility of rescuing the whole Jewish nation in the Jewish history. Obviously, Saul Bellow hopes to borrow the savior's name to express the significance of Moses Herzog's ambition for pursuing the true meaning of life and the civilization in the modern world. Secondly, Herzog, from every aspect, takes on the suffering fate of the protagonist who lives a wandering life both spiritually and physically. Suffering and wandering seem to be the perpetual themes of the ancient Jewish nation. Bellow shows partiality for the theme, which demonstrates his sentimental attachment to the ancient Hebrew culture. Thirdly, in Herzog, the protagonist is absorbed in the desperate search for the valuable existence for our human beings. Even though he is not successful, he is still our hero, whose strength lies in that he never relinquished his faith in the realm of values, never lost confidence in our human being's prospects, which is the best exemplification of the optimistic humanity of the Jewish culture. Finally, owing to the profound influence of the Jewish culture, featured by universalism, Bellow succeeds in upgrading the bitter fate of the Jewish nation to the universal predicament of the whole human beings, which transcends its nationalism and takes on the universal concerns for the whole human beings.Chapter III centers on the influence of the Jewish culture on Saul Bellow as an artist in terms of the paradoxicality of Jewish culture. The Judaic Bible can be considered as a literary work full of paradoxical ideas; in addition, the paradoxicality of the Jewish culture is also exemplified by the Jewish nation's unfortunate fate in history. Embodiments of this paradoxical idea in Herzog are as follows: first, in this novel, Saul Bellow offers us the presentation of two paradoxical worlds:"the realm of facts"filled with evil and"the realm of values"featured by goodness. On the other hand, by virtue of the Jewish humor, Saul Bellow presents to us the tragic fate of the protagonist through the ironic and comic forms, associating the theatrical self-mockery with the serious contemplation. The employment of this unique artistic form---Bellovian humor--- undoubtedly is the demonstration of the paradoxicality of the Jewish culture, which reminds us of the Schlemiel in Jewish humor. Self-mockery is an effective form from which Herzog takes both refuge and the strength to confront the traumas, frustration, and all the ruthless reality.The thesis concludes by the following statements: the Jewish elements in Saul Bellow's fictional world, either in their strict Jewish appearances or universalized images, and all are concrete expression of Saul Bellow's deep attachment to the Jewish tradition, incarnating Bellow's assimilation and distillation of his Jewish background.The originality of this thesis lies in that it makes attempts to explore the Jewish elements exhibited in Herzog through a cultural poetics approach. The thesis serves as a systematic study of the Jewish elements contained in Herzog.