Jewish Wanderers In The City

Allegra Goodman,a rising star of “new wave” writers glinting at the end of20 th century in American literature,perseveres with her distinctive humanistic writing of Jewish-American literature while living in an age of pluralism.Her works not merely brim over with Jewish spirits and religious factors,but also rebuild a picture-perfect scene in a fictional world,such as the living conditions,social crisis of American Jews,which prompts a much deeper rethink about the situation of modern Jews.Intuition is one of Goodman's excellent works;it,by virtue of its true-to-life attraction,represents Goodman's in-depth analysis of contemporary American Jews' urban life and mental outlook,indicating the new generation's different attitudes towards Jewish tradition under the influence of the complex pluralistic culture thoughts and values,especially the “new wave” writers' attitudes.Selecting this novel as the research object,this thesis dives into Goodman's innovative interpretation of the literary representation of Jewishness from the perspectives of urban space and characters' urban experience,and aims to concretize her inheritance and development of predecessors' writing.Inspired by current thoughts,the literary representation of Jewishness in contemporary Jewish-American literature has been characterized by diversity and differentiation.In the light of Saul Bellow and others' elucidation of Jewishness,Jewish writers of “new wave,” represented by Goodman,point their lens at integrating various factors of Jewish tradition into their works deliberately or inadvertently,making them play a role in reifying and sublimating the reality-oriented meaning of Jewishness.As the representative of postmodern Jewish-American literature,Goodman are not bound by various conflicts generated by the specific national history,cultural mechanism and the development of mainstream society;in contrast,she reexamines the assimilation and identity concerns of modern Jews and dispels Jewishness in the fictional text in order tomotivate readers to pay attention to practical issues that modern people will face and demystify her exploration of text innovation.Intuition is a masterpiece that is widely viewed as heralding the new creative thoughts of Jewish writing.In this novel,the ubiquitous factors of epoch,such as urban background,scientific and technological advancement,the intellectuals,etc.,open up a new opportunity for contemporary Jewish-American writers to develop and adhere faithfully to Jewishness from the view of city.Grounded on that,this thesis adopts Benjamin's theory about flaneur and the literary concept of Jewishness as starting points;by synthesizing ideas of urban space,spatial practices and the mysterious doctrine of Judaism,it probes deep into the ways that Jewish writers of new generation incorporate factors of epoch into the illation of Jews' picaresque model,the self-confusion,alienation and return of new generation,giving a distinct explanation of the literary representation of the implicit Jewishness in Intuition.The first chapter of main body elaborates the spiritual journey of Jewish wanderers by means of their spatial practices,rethinking profoundly the wandering life of contemporary Jews,echoing the long-term picaresque model in their history.The second chapter,in view of Jewish wanders' urban experience,meticulously charts their alienation,perplexities and the alienation of interpersonal relationships that caused by hovering between Jewish tradition and modern civilization,delineating the reasons that Goodman attaches much weight to alienation,a form of Jewishness.The third chapter,by combining the definition and elucidation of “Return” with the mysterious doctrine of Judaism,performs an analysis on wanderers' self-rebuilding,soul redemption,return of scientific truth and faith,and the normalization of interpersonal relations,ensuring that readers,from a new angle of view,perceive the classic motif of Jewish literature,which resides in the combination of Jewish tradition and factors in Intuition.In general,urban background is an integral part of Jewish-American novels of new wave.In Intuition,urban space,spatial practice,wanders' urban experience,etc.,all produce a tendency to reveal the contradiction of modern Jews' living situation and convey the literary representation and the universal meaning of Jewishness.Compared with the bipolar pattern of American Jewish writing,Goodman,in a manner of speaking,is more apt to integrate her understanding of modernity,time factors embedded in the mechanism of modern Jewish culture into the literary representations of Jewishness,which provides a rare insiders' look at the soul-searching journey of Jewish writers of new generation in the present predicament of Jewishness.