The Jewishness In Saul Bellow's Herzog

Saul Bellow(l 915-2005)was a famous American-Jewish writer who was deeply influenced by the Jewish culture.His novel Herzog was highly praised by the British critic Tony Tanner as this:"It summarized and contained all the questions,the problems,the feelings,the plights and the aspirations worked over in the previous novels".(Wilson,1990:15)"Jewishness" is an unavoidable problem in the study of Bellow's novel,which differs Jewish nation from other nations.Herzog also shows a strong Jewish consciousness.As a representation of Jewishness,the Jewish consciousness was formed and developed by the Jewish people for thousands of years.In nowdays,it has a new connotation,keeps pace with new times and still has important values.As an American Jewish writer,Bellow was deeply affected by Jewish traditional culture.However the Jewishness represented in Bellow's works was not apparent but hided among his works in an artistic style.Many Jewish elements can be found in this novel.Thus the Jewishness in Bellow's works is not apparent but has more traditional characteristics.Bellow refused to be labeled as a Jewish writer in that he hopes people can attach more importance to the universal values in his works.This thesis systematically analyzes the Jewishness in Herzog.The principle part of this thesis contains six chapters.The first chapter was a brief introduction to the author's accomplishments in literature,the contents of the novel and its status in American literature,the literature review of Herzog by scholars at home and abroad and the research field,the originality and structure of this thesis.The second chapter makes a brief introduction to the origin of Saul Bellow's Jewishness.It first introduces the background of the Jewish nation's vagrant history.Then since Bellow was a second generation of Jewish immigrants in America,it has great significance to analyze his inheritance to the Jewish culture and the Jewishness inherited in his works.At last,it gives a definition to Jewishness.According to the definition of Jewishness,the third,fourth and fifth chapters analyze the Jewishness of Herzog from the perspectives of "Jewish motifs","Jewish archetypes" and "Jewish ethics".The third chapter at first gives a definition to Jewish motif,that is,the culture,behavior,and the habits of thinking gradually formed in the long history of Jewish nation.Then it analyzes the novel from three aspects of "dangling" motif,"vagrant" motif and "suffering"motif.The fourth chapter firstly introduces Jewish archetype which refers to the collective unconscious elements including the plot,image,character,structure presented in Jewish culture and Jewish ancient books.Then analyzes the Jewish archetypes from the two aspects of Jewish character and Jewish image.The fifth chapter analyzes the Jewish ethic which contains two parts of being positive and optimistic and fraternal.The protagonists in Bellow's works have gone through many hardships,but they did not give up their Jewish ethics.We can see the positive spirit from Herzog and his families.Fraternity can be regarded as an ideal principle of Jews to deal with the relationship between man and world,it is followed by all the Jews.Firstly,to the Jews,the principle of being fraternal can be seen as that of "Love thy neighbors as thyself",which can be seen from the attitude of the Herzogs towards their tenant—a drunkard named Racitch.Then being fraternal can also be regarded as being kind to your relatives.Herzog's mother was a representative.She was full of love.She loved her husband,her kids and her relatives.At last,owing to the influence of his family,Herzog was a man full of love.He was kind to his friend,even to his enemy.At the end of the novel,it is his love that rescued himself.The six chapter tells that the Jewishness in Herzog not only refers to the traditional Jewish culture but also a kind of Americanized Jewishness which retains the basic elements of Jewish culture as well as certain ideologies of American thoughts.In conclusion,this thesis tries to put the novel in the context of Jewish culture,systematically explores the Jewishness from many aspects in order to explain the Jewish cultural connotation of the novel.