A Study On The Construction Of Jewish Identity In The Finkler Question From Multicultural Perspective

The Finkler Question is a representative work of British Jewish writer Howard Jacobson,who won the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 2010.The story begins with the life of an Englishman and his two Jewish friends.These three people have very different lives,but they have always maintained a friendship.Howard Jacobson writes about the survival dilemma of British Jews with humor and satirical style,so as to insinuate the universal survival problems of modern people.The writer takes the three protagonists as their first narrative perspectives,and each describes their struggles and hardships in life.At the same time,deep and serious issues such as anti-Semitism,Zionism,and identity are vividly displayed in the novel.The Finkler Question is actually the epitome of modern Jewish life,which causes people to reflect deeply on the Jewish problem.The construction of Jewish identity will be analyzed in The Finkler Question from multicultural perspective.The identities of Jews in the world of The Finkler Question are different.They are confused strangers,blended marginal people,and hyphenated “mixed-blood”.This article will focus on the construction of the identity of British Jews in a multi-ethnic society.The confused strangers get lost in the strange foreign world.Under the influence of British culture,they erect a hard barrier,walking into the comfort zone,standing still without making any progress.People who ignore the British culture adhere to the Jewish teachings of their own nation,gradually become strangers in a foreign world,respecting the ancient Jewish tradition,getting excluded from British society.Jews who want to assimilate into British society gradually become the blended marginal people.They abandon their Jewishness,blindly catering to British society,and even feel ashamed of being Jews.Under the clash of various cultures,British Jews lose their identities,finally become the people catering to British culture,the betrayers of the Jewish world who struggle to survive in the gap between the two different cultures.People of “mixed-blood” possess the complex nature of British culture and Jewish civilization at the same time.They choose to accept the call of the Jewish tradition to stay loyal to their hearts and accept the baptism of British culture.“From sublimation to rebirth”,they are not stubborn,readily following what is right.They try to construct their respective identity under the influence of British society and Jewish culture,growing harmoniously in a multicultural society.In a multi-ethnic society,racial discrimination still exists in Britain.Howard Jacobson implicitly expresses serious phenomena such as anti-Semitism,anti-Zionism,and the Jewish identity crisis in The Finkler Question.Jews in multicultural society try their best to seek identity.Through research,it can be found that the identity of Jews in the novel The Finkler Question is not static.After cultural exchanges,British Jews deconstruct the identity of foreigners then reconstruct them as marginal ones.However,marginalized people are also not accepted by British society,they establish another identity of hyphenated symbiosis.As a Jewish writer,Howard Jacobson has always been vaguely accepting his Jewish identity.The writer uses the “Finkler question” to imply the Jewish problem,which shows the sensitivity of the Jewish problem in British society,even in Europe.In the context of a contemporary multicultural society,modern people with multiple identities are struggling in the face of adversity,pursuing their “Eden”,constructing an appropriate identity,and trying their utmost to get out of the predicament.