Cynthia Ozick’s Deterritorialization

Cynthia Ozick(1928-)is one of the most renowned Jewish American writers since WWII.For her concern about Judaism and Jewish life in America,Ozick is hailed as a spokesperson of Jewish culture in postmodern America.Ozick is both praised and castigated for the Jewishness in her works-some people say that she has done a great job in this regard;others think it may diminish the aesthetic quality of her works.She is also complimented for her effort to bring Jewish morality into Western aestheticism.In this dissertation,a Deleuzoguattarian theory of "Minor Literature" is adopted to study Ozick’s works,which draws the conclusion that Ozick’s writing counts as a mode of minor literature that has broadened the boundary of American literature.French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattarn define "Minor Literature:" as a literature that "a minority constructs within a major language." Minor literature has three characteristics-the deterritorialization of language,the connection of individual issues to politics,and the collective voice.Deleuze and Guattari believe that minor literature is revolutionary because it deterritorializes the major literature by the three characteristics.Viewed through the lens of Deleuzoguattarian "Minor Literature," "Liturgical Literature" proposed by Ozick can be seen as a mode of minor literature,and "New Yiddish" employed in liturgical literature is a minoritarian treatment of American English,and can function as a minor language.Minor language deterritorializes the major language in two ways,either to overload it or to make it poor.Ozick’s deterritorialization of American English belongs to the first type,which consists not only in her use of Yiddish lexicon in her writings,but also in the fact that she instills new idea into English,which can be seen by her tenacious depiction of anti-idolatry,Jewish core idea,in her works,making it her most important theme and a commoner theme in American literature.Ozick’s writing also deterritorializes American literature politically.First,Ozick’s deterritorializing of American literature is shown through her reflection on Jewish faith and sexuality,which associate with Ozick’s identity-both as a Jew and a female.As a Jew.Ozick stresses the importance of Jewish faith.In her fiction,she explores the possibility of Jewish faith after the Holocaust in the United States.Related issues such as the election of Jews.Zionism,and the founding of the State of Israel are also touched upon.As a female,she protests against female writers’ writing to be seen as merely sentimental.She objects to distinguishing writers by their gender.Ozick rewrites the Jewish golem story to challenge Jewish patriarchal hegemony in literary creation.Second.Ozick’s writing deterritorializes American literature through her expression of the collective voice of Jewish people,which demonstrates her emphasis on history and her depiction of Jewish existence in America.Ozick believes that the voice of history is the echo of the lord of history.Jewish concept of history believes that God reveals himself in history,and God interferes in the course of history through events.Therefore the echo of Lord is the voice of Jewish people.In history,Jewish existence can be shown.The above-mentioned qualities of Ozick’s writing make it a mode of minor literature.Ozick,s writing as minor literature is a deterritorialization of the major literature of America.It is a revolutionary power that broadens the boundary of American literaure,and brings new force to American literature.At the same time,writing as minor literature enables Ozick to find a way to express the Jewish Idea in American lierature.