A Study Of Diaspora In Charles Reznikoff's Poetry

Charles Reznikoff(1894-1976)did not receive great recognition until late in his life,although he was the prolific author of more than fifteen volumes of poetry,in addition to plays,novels,and historical works.However,he became familiar to the general reading public only in 1962 with the publication of By the Waters of Manhattan: Selected.Yet,his obscurity in the early and middle periods of his writing career did not prevent critics,contemporary writers,and subsequent poets from noticing his poetic talent.Some critics point out that he is “the dean of Jewish American poets,” combining the sensibility of a modernist who focuses on images of the urban landscape,as well as a poet who focuses on Jewish themes and the fate of the Jewish people.The poet Louis Zukofsky,his contemporary,defined the basic poetic characteristics of Objectivism based on Reznikoff's ideas of “sincerity” and “objectification.” And his later poet Allen Ginsberg regarded him as a poetic father.As this dissertation will show,previous critics and scholars have mainly focused their scholarly attention on Reznikoff's poetic features: the urban theme,identity,modernism,and the Holocaust.They have not yet systematically researched the question and topic of the diaspora in Reznikoff's poetry.Based on close readings of Reznikoff's poems,this dissertation aims to probe the features of Reznikoff's literary oeuvre that constitute conceptions of diaspora from the perspectives of diasporic geography,diasporic identity,and diasporic ethics,utilizing the identity theories of Homi Bhabha,Stuart Hall and diaspora theory developed by Daniel Boyarin and Jonathan Boyarin.Although these three dimensions have their emphasis,they have formed an organic unity: the experiences of Jewish migration in history and the poet's constant relocation are the reasons for his ambivalence in identity;the hyphenation,as a mark for his dual Jewish American identities,not only makes him have double consciousness but also thinks of the possibilities of having the sense of being “homed” in modern society through constructing the relations of Self and Other.Besides,Reznikoff once said that the themes in his poetry are nothing more than American,Jewish and urban.To study Reznikoff's poetry from the perspective of the diaspora is both consistent with his themes,while also grasping the features of Reznikoff's poetic creativity more comprehensively.This dissertation includes five parts.The introduction provides an overview of the literary achievements of Reznikoff,combining and assessing studies conducted by critics in China and abroad,as well as this dissertation's theoretical framework,and its argument and organization.The central part of the thesis analyzes multiple representative poems by Reznikoff drawn from his fifty-year writing career in order to excavate the diasporic essence of Reznikoff's poetry.Chapter One examines diasporic geography as representations of exile in the metropolis and imaginative locality.It argues that diasporic geography exists in the heterogeneous urban scene,the objectivist's metropolis and Jerusalem in imagination.This dissertation holds that in the living condition of urban dwellers,in the cityscapes of New York and Hollywood,these suburban and urban space contribute to the alterity of diasporic geography,including its ambivalence and instability.Integrating the idea of the metropolis with Reznikoff's poetics of urbanism,this dissertation also examines how the modernist collage is used to express displacement and the juxtaposition of fragmentation in the metropolis.Extending the idea of “homeland” as spiritual space,this chapter goes on to examine the Jerusalem in imagination.Dialoguing with the Scripture,the philosophies of Spinoza,and Karl Marx,and the Menorah Journal,the poet found that the “unhomely” geographical sense mentioned above prompts him to relate to his ancestral homeland by conceptualizing it as his spiritual homeland.This chapter concludes that Reznikoff's diasporic outlook on the city,on his dwelling in the city while preparing to live elsewhere,is essential for preserving his identity in diaspora.Chapter Two examines Reznikoff's diasporic identity from the perspective of hybrid identity.Reznikoff's negotiation of assimilation and difference,of Jewish and American identities,and of the distinctive grounding of his Jewishness as expressed in his Holocaust writing have contributed to Reznikoff's expression of the problems of identity in the diaspora.Reznikoff's exploration of his various names and the uses of various languages reflect the instability in his identity construction.Through images of trees,leaves and the moon in his short poems,Reznikoff questions the contrast between the sacred and the secular,tradition and modernity,Hebrew and English,which help the poet to construct his stance as a hyphenated American.In the context of American writings after the Holocaust,Reznikoff distinctly grounds his Jewishness in the presence of the Holocaust in his poems.Analyzing Reznikoff's Holocaust from the perspective of primary sources,his ways of composition and his purpose of writing it,this dissertation emphasizes that rewriting historical events has been important to Reznikoff's Jewish identity.Chapter Three examines the diasporic ethics of Reznikoff's poetry in his advocation of anti-othering and his pursuit of home in immanence.Reznikoff's diasporic ethics is embodied in his thoughts on the relations between Self and Other,his empathic witnessing as a way against othering and his ethical choice of making a home in immanence.In Reznikoff's Early History of A Writer,his double consciousness,the verbal discrimination against his Jewish identity,and images of crucifixion haunt the figure of the Jew in his poems.However,the shadows of being othered do not stop him from searching for a home for himself and the Other in his poetry.In writing for others,Reznikoff's experiences of sympathetic distress prompt him to focus on the images of the overlooked strangers in his city.Proposing to change the mode of I-It and I-Thou into a Thou-I mode of sympathy,Reznikoff offers a poetic home for the Other.In such an empathic space,home is not far but is in immanence.By studying the diasporic features of Reznikoff's poetry through the theories of diaspora,this dissertation expands the scope of scholarship on Reznikoff's poetry.It also strengthens domestic scholars' understanding of the writing features of the Objectivists',such as “sincerity” and “objectification” through an engaged critique of Reznikoff's poetic strategies.Moreover,this dissertation serves as a beneficial reference to those who are interested in Jewish American poetry by combining diaspora studies with poetry.