Urban Narrative In American Jewish Fiction Of The Holocaust

For the Jewish Holocaust survivors living in America and other post-Holocaust American Jews,urban areas are where their life experience happens,where their mind and feelings linger,and where their concerns of the Holocaust memory and apprehension of reality can be mediated.American Jewish writers deal with the issue of the Holocaust on different levels,some of which center on American Jews' urban experience.With the evolvement of American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust,the conception of city develops into a complex idea.And urban experience becomes a key factor in the construction of the identity of American Jewry.This dissertation will study the urban narrative in American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust and explore its relationship with the Holocaust memory through an analysis of the representative works of American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust,in order to further explain the identity construction of American Jewry in the post-Holocaust era.Based on Levebvre's theory of cities and ideas from Human Geography about “place”,this dissertation interprets cities in American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust as a system of meanings of signs.In urban narratives of American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust,the signified of the signifier “cities”,to some extent,could refer to the Holocaust memory.In this sense,urban areas are represented as a kind of space in which the Holocaust memory is preserved,constructed and inherited.Drawn on Wirth-Nesher's approach to city novels,ideas of cultural memory and postmemory,this dissertation will classify the urban areas in American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust into three categories: “confined urban area”,“interlaced urban area” and “ ‘diasporic' cities”,and discuss these three categories in detail by choosing two fictions as cases for each category.From the perspective of the Holocaust survivors,the cities they live in are full of “confined” spaces.On one hand,the survivors project their traumatic experiences and feelings on their living environment to make some meaningful urban spaces for themselves.On the other hand,urban spaces become the carrier of survivors' traumatic memories and a participator in the construction of survivors' identity because they can offer a place for preservation of the Holocaust traumatic memories,which exerts a great significance on the shaping of the identity of the Jewish survivors in post-Holocaust era.Urban spaces have different forms of textual representation in American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust.For example,in I·B·Singer's Enemies,A Love Story,the protagonist regards his house in New York as a safe house,which can provide him with consolation and a “sacred” place for reestablishing his fragmented identity.In Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl,Rosa's hotel room in Miami becomes her prison,which traps her in her traumatic memories,hindering her from normal communication with others.From the perspective of the Holocaust bystanders,urban areas are interlaced spaces.The interlacing process of urban spaces represents the construction of the Holocaust memory and the conflicts,communication and transformation between the bystanders' and survivors' cultural minds and emotions.With the large-scale infusion of the Holocaust survivors into American cities,the Holocaust began to show its influence on the American bystanders' life.For the bystanders,the Holocaust memory is different from that of the survivors.The former is a kind of memory constructed from the interaction between bystanders and survivors and transformed by the American culture.In Philip Roth's “Eli,the Fanatic,” urban spaces represent clearly the construction of the Holocaust memories: American Jewish suburbanization promotes the construction of the Holocaust memories;the conflicts between the living spaces of bystanders and survivors demonstrate the influence of construction of the Holocaust memories on individuals.In Saul Bellow's Mr.Sammler's Planet,changes and movements of urban spaces in 1960s' New York represent the universalization and sacralization of the Holocaust memory.From the perspective of the after-generations of the Holocaust survivors,cities in their return journey are “diasporic” cities.Those cities are located on the big map of the Jewish diaspora,which carry the same loneliness and misery as that of the Jews in wondering and departing from homeland in their diaspora.But they also carry a hope for the after-generations' self-redemption from their inherited trauma and depression about rupture in their family and cultural memory.These “diasporic” cities will make different ends to the after-generations' return journey.In Thane Rosenbaum's Second Hand Smoke,the protagonist realizes his self-redemption in his return journey after traveling through several “diasporic” cities.And during that journey he also tries to complete his inheritance of the Holocaust memory from his ancestors and pursue his own identity as an American Jew.Yet in Nicole Krauss' s Man Walks into a Room,the protagonist fails to solve his memory problem,having to make compromise with the failure and go on with his trauma.Through the above discussion,this dissertation concludes that,American Jewish fiction of the Holocaust,by creating different types of urban spaces for the Holocaust survivors,bystanders and the after-generations,tries to develop a series of spatial representational forms for the preservation,construction and inheritance of the Holocaust memory.By doing so,the American Jewish writers of those works express their understanding of American Jews' living status and pursuit of identity in postHolocaust era,make their critical response to the Holocaust consciousness,Americanization of the Holocaust and show their deep concern of American Jews' fate.In addition,the representation of the post-Holocaust life of American Jews through urban narratives is a valuable contribution to the enrichment of literal representation of the Holocaust.