On The Intellectual Images In Amos Oz’s A Tale Of Love And Darkness

Amos Oz (1939-), the contemporary Israeli literature authority, is an outstanding representative of the "new wave" writers in Israel,and also is a Hebrew writer with the most international influence, and also the tenured professor of Hebrew literature in Ben Gurion University of Israel. The childhood in Jerusalem, study experiences at University of Oxford, and the history and reality of the Arab-Israeli conflict constitute his multicultural background and international perspective. As a "public intellectuals" who advocates peace, Oz tells us the story of personal experience and family history in the autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness(2002), and creates different images of the intellectuals. He has concerned about the fate of intellectuals in the special situation, trying to explore a way out of the spiritual dilemma from the "dialogue" theory of Jewish Philosophy In this paper, the research theme has provided a reference value to reflect the survival dilemma of the contemporary intellectuals and ethnic conflicts.In introduction part, it briefly introduces Amos Oz’s life and creative works of literature, and generalizes the research status both at home and abroad,and suggests the significance in the study of intellectual image and the innovation of this thesis, redefines the definition of "intellectual" in this thesis.From the perspective of history and culture, chapter one respectively traces the origin of the intellectual image under Oz’s writing from the aspect of inheritance and absorption. In inheritance, it generalizes the important identity such as "prophet", "rabbi" and "the scribe" the intellectual in Hebrew culture has always held and also analyses the important role the intellectual group has played in different historical periods of Jewish race. The author summarizes that the intellectual under Oz’s writing inherits the effects of the guidance of the ethnic development and leaders hosted by the intellectuals in Hebrew culture as cultural elite class. In absorption, it traces the relationship between Oz and Russian literature through Oz’s family background and academic background. By analyzing a series of classic intellectual images such as "superfluous man", "new personality" and "vulgar intellectuals" in Russian literature, this thesis suggests the Russia-based character of the intellectual image under Oz’s writing.Chapter two, from the perspective of text analysis, makes a deep study of the identity construction, historical memory of diaspora, and literary discourse of the characters in this work and analyzes the three types of "Intellectuals" in Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness by utilizing the method of intensive reading of the text. One is the "Old Jewish Intellectuals" who want to return to Jerusalem in the tide period of western anti-Semitism. They expect the return to homeland with the unrequited love for Europe, but they are faced with the new spiritual exile. The second type is new "Hebrew Intellectuals", growing up in the period of the Zionism. They devote into the Zionist movement with the confusion of self-identity, becoming the superfluous man of the pioneer group. The third one is "Hebrew Women Intellectuals" hidden in the Jewish History. They are full of romantic fantasy, but they can only live in silence in reality.The third chapter, from the perspective of surviving dilemma, explores the contradiction between the identification, living environment, political belief and "intellectuals" of the characters in this work and demonstrates characteristics of intellectuals’ problem under Amos Oz’s writing. In the theoretical background of the "philosophy of dialogue", Amos Oz, as a public intellectual and pacifist, attempts to find a way out for "intellectuals" through the mode of dialogue in A Tale of Love and Darkness.The Conclusion makes a summary of the thesis. By analyzing the image of the "intellectuals" in A Tale of Love and Darkness, this thesis describes the particularity and modernity of the intellectual image under Oz’s writing. And it also reveals the unique survival philosophy and wisdom of the author under the complex living environment. On this basis, we can have a better understanding of Amos Oz’s humanitarian concern as a "public intellectual" and of the contemporary significance as an advocate of peace.