The Historical And Philosophical Thoughts In Bellow’s Herzog

Saul Bellow, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in1976, is sedulous indelineating the philosophical-moral dilemmas, perplexities and paradoxes in modernhuman life. Albeit bristling at the title of American Jewish Writer, Bellow claims to be "animaginative historian of society" who accurately delineates social and historical realities.The very thoughts of history and philosophy radiate from Bellow’s chef d’oeuvre Herzog.Based on Greenblatt’s New historicism and Freudian psychoanalysis theories, the presentdissertation attempts to make a tentative study of the historical and philosophical thoughtsin Bellow’s Herzog to reveal particularly Bellow’s philosophical meditations on history,suffering, death, and redemption, as well as his humanistic concerns for the Jews and themankind.When history is referred to as records of past events, Bellow’s historical views are inline with New historians’. In Herzog, Bellow presents that man’s memory and reproductionof past events is with art and craft by constructing images of the absentees Madeleine andValentine and presenting disparate comments on adultery and custody from differentcharacters’ perspectives; in the meantime he indicates the "historicity of text" by unfoldinga panorama of social, cultural and historical contexts through the protagonist’s recollectionsand un-mailed letters. Then Freud’s trauma theory is employed to dissect the author and hischaracters’ personal and ethnic trauma symptoms to reveal particularly the dual-naturedhistory’s traumatic impacts on man’s life.When history is regarded as the diachronic development of the mankind, Bellow’shistorical views are modernistic and humanistic ones. In portraying characters dangling assub-angels in society, Bellow demonstrates a dialectical and dual understanding of theprotagonist of history. It is not only man’s nobleness but also his humbleness that makesman human, so do his confusions and quests. Herzog’s striving for reconstructing aplatonic homeland in a spiritual wasteland impeccably symbolizes man’s humanity as wellas historical importance. Based on Freud’s personality structure theory, the presentdissertation probes further into reasons for Herzog’s bordering on neurosis and his finalsalvation to rationality, and concludes that it’s inadequate to put all blame either on man’s personal factors or on social ones when analyzing man’s social conditions anddevelopment.Studying the novel from perspectives of culture and religion reveals that the historicaland philosophical thoughts embedded in Herzog are also of Jewish characteristics.Concerning historical directionality, Bellow reveals a dialectically progressing history andregards everything as an intermediate in history, which mainly stems from Jewishoptimism and their unique concept of time. And Herzog’s spiritual Odyssey is infused withBellow’s deep meditations on the core issues of human existence and of Judaism---deathand suffering, which are regarded as the basis and catalyst of man’s transcendencerespectively. Finally a comparative study of the protagonist’s redemption and Judaismdoctrines is made to disclose the similarities in terms of stressing on harmony, focusing oncommonness, and advocating seizing the day. The dissertation concludes that Bellow isboth an American writer and a Jewish writer, a historian and a philosopher.