Deviation And Return: A Cultural Interpretation Of The Theme In The Magician Of Lublin

Isaac Bashevis Singer,one of the most distinguished contemporary Jewish writers in America,was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 for "his impassioned narrative art which,with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition,brings universal human conditions to life." The Magician of Lublin,his masterpiece,mainly portrays the spiritual progress of the protagonist Yasha,who returns to the Jewish traditional culture after deviating from it to strive for another culture.The thesis holds the view that Deviation and Return is the most prominent theme of the novel,which is mainly expressed from two aspects:the deviation from and return to the Jewish identity and the Jewish traditional morals.Both the deviation from and the return to the Jewish identity and traditional morals are cultural phenomena.Therefore,by employing Stephen Greenblatt's theory of Cultural Poetics,this thesis attempts to have a cultural interpretation of the theme of Deviation and Return in the context of the Jewish history and the Jewish traditional culture,so as to reveal the interrelation between literature and culture.Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion parts,the thesis falls into four chapters.The first chapter describes briefly the spiritual progress of the Jews' deviation from and return to the Jewish identity and the Jewish traditional morals,and the theme of Deviation and Return as revealed in Singer's works.Chapter 2 makes a detailed analysis of Yasha's deviation from and return to the Jewish identity in The Magician of Lublin from three aspects:his faith,his observance of the religious rituals and the clothing and appearance.Chapter 3 explores how and why Yasha deviates from and returns to the Jewish traditional morals which are mainly recorded in the Ten Commandments in the Hebrew Bible.The thesis holds that Yasha in The Magician of Lublin is an epitome of the Jewry,and Yasha's deviation from and return to the Jewish identity and the Jewish traditional morals mirror the Jewry's spiritual progress.The last chapter mainly probes into the cultural connotations of the theme of Deviation and Return,and the author points out that the theme of Deviation and Return in The Magician of Lublin reveals both Singer's and Yasha's self-examination of and abidance by the Jewish traditional culture,and the inevitability of the Jew's return to the Jewish traditional culture after their deviation from it.Through such a cultural interpretation of the theme of Deviation and Return in The Magician of Lublin,the thesis attempts to demonstrate the influence of the Jewish traditional culture on Singer's writings and Singer's deep concern for the modern Jews' surviving conditions,so as to shed some light on the studies in Singer in China.