Caught Between Two Impossible Extremes

Isaac Bashevis Singer(1904-1991), bom in Poland, is a famous AmericanJewish writer whose works has been translated into different languages. Due to hissolid root in Polish Jewish cultural tradition and passionate narrative technique,Singer depicts not only the Jewish world from late 19th to early 20th century world,but also the Jews' reflection on religion, morality and life itself when the Jews werefacing the destiny of being massacred, reflects and portrays human beings' universalpredicamen. In 1978, he was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature.Based on the interpretation on The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer,I means to analyze the universal spiritual perplexity concerned by modem Jewishwriters, reveal the universal meaning of the spiritual outlet to the modern westernworld in thes thesis. Employed close reading, combined with social, cultural,economical and ideological elements, I try to bring light to the protagonist'salienation, his vain search for absolute freedom, greed for material wealth and thepuzzlement of soul's shelter and a spiritual homeland. The thesis analyzes Yasha'sself-redemption from multiple perspectives and points out that Yasha's eventualchoice is not conversion but regression, a kind of defense mechanism. Adoptingsome notions from the critical theory of cultural poetics, I locate my textual analysisin the context of history, religion, philosophy and sociology, judge its value from acultural perspective, try to reveal the intertextuality between literature and culture.The thesis is framed into five parts. The first one composes of the content,structure, originality of the thesis and the literary review on the criticism of Singer'sThe Magician of Lublin. The second part analyzes Yasha's identity crisis and itsreasons from three different perspectives. First, historically, the Jews are prejudicedupon by the local residents throughout dispersion, 19th century's Europe is noexception. Even Yasha is a popular magician, he also feels unfair treatment as a Jew.Second, as the society develops, the Jewish tradition disaggregates gradually, its once great power and influence also abates and even disappears. This is due to the effect ofIndustrial Revolution, Eastern European Enlightenment Movement, thoughts likehumanism, rationalism etc. Besides, under a comparatively friendlier circumstance,prejudice Jews suffer, no matter economically, religiously or ideologically, becomesless intense. Therefore, Jews' centripetal force lessens to some degree. Third, Yasha'sfinancial independence also offers him possibility and reality to abandon Judaism.The third part goes on to analyze Yasha's effort to assimilate and the disastrous resultsafter his failure. In this chapter, the author divides his goal into two steps: at first, heregards Emilia as the symbol of European society and longs for marrying her to enterthe upper class. Then, he needs to achieve three objectives:to abandon religion, todivorce Esther and to steal a vast amount of money. When all these fails, Yasha facesunprecedented pressure and depression. In Chapter Three, the author continues toexplore Yasha's incentive behind his self-redemption and the essence of his behavior.Employed Freud's psycho-analytic theory, I prove that Yasha's choice is regressionrather than conversion for his spiritual predicament, identity crisis, disordered mindremain unsolved. The last part, Chapter Four concludes the thesis.Singer is a Jewish writer with a firm belief, he claims himself the hero of hisnation and a wave of passion to redempt the whole human beings is surging in hisheart. He ceaselessly searches eternal truth and the essential meaning of humanexistence. Faith in God is a constant theme in his works. As his masterpiece, TheMagician of Lublin embodies the author's unique interpretation of faith and exploresthe commonly concerned question in western world—the essence of Judaism. Theprotagonist's self-redemption doesn't bring him peace in mind. However, his behaviordoes promote some value system. What Singer means to convey here is not to offeran eternal spiritual homeland and soul's shelter for modern people, but to tell the factthat people are unable to find faith and acquire spiritual peace in a world in which thenotion of God and religious tradition has gone further and further. Based on thetextual analysis and its cultural background, I get a conclusion: as a spiritual power,either belief in God or returning to tradition is only the author's subjective wish. It is impossible to lead the westerners to self-redemption, to achieve peace in mind. It is,in deed, only a vain effort to sue to God in the modern world.