On The Paradoxical Identity Of Jewish Intellectuals In Ravelstein

Ravelstein is the last work written by Saul Bellow which is a novelistic memoir on his friend Allan Bloom.Researches in China and abroad have mostly probed into the biographical characteristics of the novel.Besides,more and more studies have focused on the Jewishness,cultural themes and identity themes in the novel.However,studies on Jewish intellectuals' paradoxical identity are far from enough.Peter Burke,a famous English historian,points out that how an individual thinks about and act on the environment and the self influences the formation of a specific identity.Paradox,according to M.H.Abrams' definition,is a statement which seems ostensibly to be logically contradictory or absurd,yet turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes sense.Paradoxical identity is such a being which seems to be logically absurd yet is of significance.It generally results from the influence of mixture cultures which is a construction always in process.Based on this,the thesis intends to give an interpretation of the Jewish intellectuals' paradoxical identity in Ravelstein from political,ethnic and cultural aspects,combining with identity research,Jewish history and culture and Bellow's writing conception.The body of the thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter one is to analyse Jewish intellectuals' paradoxical political identity as a cosmopolitan patriot.The paradox is reflected from their attempt to attain higher discourse power on the one hand for which they need to hide their Jewish identity as possible,and their defense for Jews' profits on the other hand which causes obstruction in their political participation.Chapter two argues that this paradox is also embodied in their ethnic identity as a marginal man.It points out Jewish intellectuals' voluntary marginalization from orthodox Judaism and their recognition of this marginality in a self-deprecating way.Meanwhile they embrace the otherness trying to de-marginalize themselves,thus put themselves in a contradictory tension.Chapter three holds that Jewish intellectuals as a rootless reservoir,their paradoxical identity is reflected in the opposite state: their rootless cultural belongingness and their cultural inclusiveness.It reveals that they are not rooted in Jewish tradition,however they behave like a modern Moses anticipating to construct a new Eden in supremely technological America.The analyses above prove that Bellow has presented Jewish intellectuals' paradoxical state in an alien society in Ravelstein aiming to prove that Jewish intellectuals are supposed to choose an intermediary way so as to relieve paradox,that is,to face up to their Jewish identity and inherit Jewish tradition and culture,which is of vital significance for them to survive and get development in a hybrid gentile world.It shows Bellow's reflection and concern on Jewish people's development in contemporary society.