A Study Of The Aesthetics Of Existence In Jewish American Drama

Jewish American literature is an important branch of American literature which has had great literary achievements and is of great value.And Jewish American drama has been more influential than fiction or poetry in the earlier time.With the emergence of American ethnic troupes in the late eighteenth century,Jewish theatres were considered the most prominent.Like other ethnic plays,Jewish American drama at that time mainly reflected the dilemma of alienation and assimilation between the traditional ideology of Jewish immigrants and the mainstream culture of WASPs in terms of acculturation and identity.In the twentieth century,American society underwent significant changes both economically and ideologically,with different lifestyles and ideologies from those in classical and romantic periods.Whether in levels of material or cultural consumption,the new emerging trends brought many uncertain and unpredictable risks to the country,society,and family,and also led to the reform of aesthetic standards.On the whole,with the continuous integration of the second and third generation of Jewish American immigrants into the mainstream,the new generation of immigrants and their descendants mostly followed the local customs and kept pace with the times in the aspects of language,lifestyle,religious customs,and values.Their status in American social structure rose constantly.The improvement of their lives,as well as their education,broadened their horizons.Therefore,the study of Jewish American drama cannot just be limited to the level of racial discrimination and marginalization of ethnic identity,or it will be too simple and one-sided and will not be in line with the real living conditions and literary creation of contemporary Jewish Americans.As an ethnic group,they have the same problems of race and identity which really cannot be ignored.However,they cannot be separated from the complex historical background of confusion,hardship,and conflicts that American society has encountered in its long history.That is to say,the study of Jewish American drama must be placed in the historical context of the United States to make a more comprehensive and relevant interpretation and understanding of their real living conditions.Jewish Americans and other ethnic groups,like other Americans,have all participated in and witnessed the establishment and development of the United States.In this process,ethnic groups faced more discriminations and oppressions from the mainstream on the whole.Fairly speaking,even within the ethnic groups,there also existed different opinions due to different individual economic conditions,social status,moral standards,values and so on.From the perspective of human nature,the existence and production practices of humans are based on the care of the self.The survival and development of individuals are the foundation of those of mankind.Facing the alienation of modern western society,Michel Foucault,one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century,advocates that the bio-power of humans must be established to eliminate the danger brought to the subject by scientific discourse and eventually build a harmonious and democratic society eventually.He takes "the care of the self" as the ultimate goal of his aesthetics of existence,which is precisely the self-oriented principle of personal life and selfculture of existence.From three aspects of power,knowledge,and subject,he analyzes the discipline,governmentality,ethics,and morality,as well as the practice of the self,calling for the individual to get more freedom in social life and to create a proper art of existence.Based on Foucault's viewpoints of power,knowledge,and subject and relevant theories of other scholars,this dissertation analyzes the life experience and historical reality of the Jewish survival,struggle,integration,and development in the United States according to the sequence of social and historical development in the twentieth century.The playwrights selected in this paper,regardless of gender,have a certain influence in American literature and even world literature.The analyzed dramas not only include tragedy and comedy in genre,but also have literary significance and research value in their content.In terms of theme,these plays also reflect the social characteristics of the United States in various periods of the twentieth century,as well as the living conditions of Jewish Americans and other American people as comprehensively as possible.At the beginning of the twentieth century,during the period of economic transformation in the United States,women,ethnic groups and lower-class people who were marginalized and deprived of power were all fighting for their social status and economic benefits.Influenced by Marxism,Foucault further points out in his view of power that modern society is a place of discipline and punishment.The panopticism of discipline and governance has occurred not only in prison,school,army and so on,but also in places such as ordinary families that are not easily perceived.Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes and Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty explain the erosion of individuals and families by the capitals of power and economy.Under the capitalist system,discipline technology has evolved in modern times.From the management of a family to the governance of a nation,from the collective to the individual,power exists everywhere.The playwrights appeal to individuals with different professions,genders,and races to achieve their liberty by breaking through the network of power relations,especially the laboring poor who desperately fight for their bio-power deprived by the exploitation of capital and the alienation of labor.After the Second World War,especially in the 1960s,due to the influence of feminism,civil rights movement,counter-culture,and other emerging ideologies,the public developed a little knowledge of these novel terms,which led to cognitive deviation from life.This also resulted in the distortion of desire,alienation of humanity,and eventually the tragedy of individuals and families.In such a period,Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady reflect the idea that with the development of society and history,people's understanding of knowledge,influenced by social and family environment,is incorporated into a variety of power relations,and ultimately affects the quality of life and living conditions.The playwrights try to unravel the view that knowledge has been closely associated with power and has become a symbol of clout and status in modern western society.When the economic,cultural and social capitals of the lower-class are seriously deficient,it is a very indulgent and dangerous game of survival that this kind of person tries to treat their bodies as capital or as objects of consumption because of their limitation of knowledge.Only when knowledge and power are combined to produce powerknowledge can individuals use the technology of the self to change their ideology,behaviors,and lifestyles,and then get out of a predicament and achieve a happy state of existence.In the late twentieth century,the public paid more attention to "the self." Many Americans,including Jewish Americans,have been exploring how to get rid of the shackles of modern subjectivity and become subjects with bio-power.Under such social background,Oleanna written by David Mamet and Angels in America by Tony Kushner reveal the process of transformation from "human" to "subject" through two aspects—discourse power and body.Discourse is one of the crucial factors for the construction of the subject.The subject uses discourse to explain himself,and at the same time,to regulate and restrict his thoughts and behaviors to a certain extent.The differences in economy,status,and race affect the competition for the power of discourse among subjects.The sexuality in the body makes the subject closely related to society,politics,and culture.It is precisely because the subjects are alienated from or beyond the mainstream conventions and moral values at that time that they fantasize about the real existence of a utopia and are regarded as abnormal.The aesthetics of existence is a kind of aesthetics of survival practice,which focuses on the elements associated with human and life.Only when the subject can freely express his various demands can he have liberty.The exploration of power,knowledge,and subject is all about the existence of humans,which is the most important task for everyone.The experience of production,labor,and communication in real life indicates a kind of art of existence.The care of the self not only shows the ethical relationship among the subjects,but also uses its own technologies of existence to deal with the problems with others and enjoy as much physical liberty and mental pleasure as possible.All of these are vividly and concretely reflected in the selected plays.It is the living practice of the characters in each drama that enriches the expression and meaning of the aesthetics of existence.This dissertation analyzes the individuals' various demands on the living conditions and environment in diverse historical backgrounds.Jewish Americans,in particular,still cherish life after experiencing so much cruelty and hardship.In the process of the struggle for existence,they know more about life and gradually improve themselves.In the context of American multiculturalism,they also witness the development of American history and society.In different periods and social environments,in order to adapt to the development of the times,Jewish Americans and other Americans constantly change their strategy and art of living practice to create their own aesthetics of existence.