A Study On Traumatic Theme In Saul Bellow's Novels

As a renowned contemporary American Jewish writer,Saul Bellow(1915-2005)has become famous worldwide since he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976.Jews have suffered too much historically,and their national history is almost a history of suffering.Traumatic memory as a special form of cultural memory and literary writing as an effective way to preserve cultural memory,are closely related to identification.Deeply influenced by Jewish tradition and culture,Bellow presents the Jewish traumatic history of being forced to its diaspora,persecuted by anti-Semitism and subjected to the terrible Holocaust in more than 60 years of literary career.Bellow regards the Jewish traumatic memory as an important basis for national identity,he has been repeatedly writing Jewish traumatic experience,condemning anti-Semitism,reflecting on the root of the Holocaust,and warning people of the recurrence of the tragedy.Critics are familiar with the theme of trauma in Bellow's works,but they have paid less attention to the consistency of the trauma as the theme in Bellow's writing.This dissertation selects Bellow's seven novels:The Victim(1947),Seize the Day(1956),Herzog(1964),Mr.Sammler's Planet(1970),To Jerusalem and Back(1976),The Bellarosa Connection(1989)and Ravelstein(2000)to reveal and systematically interpret the coherence of Bellow's traumatic narrative for the first time,that is,the Jewish traumatic history including history of being forced to its diaspora,persecuted by anti-Semitism and subjected to the terrible Holocaust.Three parts of the dissertation "trauma metaphor","violent trauma" and "traumatic memory" present Bellow's long journey of struggling for memory reconstruction:from refusing to accept the title of Jewish writer to gradually clarifying his national identity and facing the history of national blood and tears;exposing the ideological roots of German Nazis,condemning the crime of anti-Semites and the heinous crime of the Holocaust,to eventually proposing the idea that "all Jews who have not been slaughtered are survivors".From implicit allusion to serious reflection,and then to severe accusation,Bellow has been reflecting on the historical catastrophe,calling for national cohesion,promoting ethnic identification and exploring ways of redemption.By loading the national history with trauma narration,Bellow has completed the construction of nationality.As an American Jewish writer,Bellow is deeply concerned about living conditions of American Jews,and is also deeply worried about the phenomenon of Americanization and the crisis of Jewish identity.He warns Jews of assimilation of Jewish culture by mainstream American culture and advocates seeking common grounds while reserving differences.According to him,American Jews should adhere to their own ethnicity to avoid being assimilated,and seek common grounds while reserving ethnic and cultural differences and absorbing heterogeneous culture with the open attitude,which reflects Bellow's deep thinking on multicultural integration.For Bellow,the Holocaust is not only the great calamity of the Jews,but also a metaphor for human suffering.Moreover,as a responsible writer,Bellow elevates national traumatic history of Jews to the fate of mankind,reveals the human survival situation,and searches for ways of redemption.Bellow has completed the transcendence of nationality,winning the national culture worldwide significance.Bellow cares about the fate and future of mankind,pays attention to human existence and development,ponders on the significance of human existence with the sense of responsibility and mission of cosmopolitan writers,and transcends the boundaries of nation and country,so that his traumatic narrative has a broader universal significance and has produced profound impact on the following American Jewish writers.