A Study Of Malamud’s Novels From The Perspective Of Existentialism

Bernard Malamud is regarded as one of the most influential Jewish writers in contemporary American literature.After publishing eight novels and four collections of short stories,he has won two National Book Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for literature and plays an important role in world literature.Malamud describes Jewish ordinary people as the protagonist and mainly depicts the Jews’ misery and the elements of his novels are deeply rooted in the traditional Jewish history,culture and religion.In his novels,Malamud tries to portray those people who are brave enough to pursue a new life even though their lives are full of misery.Actually Malamud’s novels not only reflect the influence of existentialist philosophy on him,but also exhibit his thoughts on human beings and their existential significance.Taking two of his novels as examples,of which are A New Life(1961)and Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition(1969),this thesis attempts to probe into the three existential elements including the absurdity of the world,the alienation of existence and the self-restoration in order to explore their realistic significance.This thesis is composed of five parts.The introduction part begins with Malamud’s life,his novels and provides the literature review of foreign and domestic response.Chapter One gives brief introduction to the evolution and the philosophical viewpoints of existentialism theory,which includes absurdity,alienation and restoration.Chapter Two analyzes the absurdity of the world from the aspects of family background,Cascadia college and social environment.The world in which Levin and Fidelman live is full of absurdity,and they fall into helplessness and disorder.Chapter Three explores the alienation of human existence which can be divided into the alienation of man and society,the alienation of man and others and self-alienation to reveal the living predicament of American Jewish people and the severe social problems that lead to alienation.Chapter Four discusses the free choices of the protagonists in the two novels which reflects their self-restoration to the real existence.The conclusion part summarizes the whole thesis with the belief that the study of existentialism in Malamud’s novels can help us rethink the crisis of modern civilization and the plight of all modern people and reveal Malamud’s ultimate concern for the fate of human beings.