The Construction of Identity in Saul Bellow's and Philip Roth's Major Novels - Anca Popa

Lucrarea reprezinta o lucrare de referinta in domeniul studiilor etnice, considerate un fenomen de anvergura in literatura americana contemporana. Prin demersul sau critic, aceasta prezinta modalitati de constructie a identitatii complexe iudeo-americane in lucrarile a 2 scriitori canonici americani, reprezentanti ai celei de-a doua generatii de imigr catre acesti 2 autori, si referire la pareri critice consacrate, cartea de fata surprinde conditia eului in societatea americana in romanul postbelic etnic din perspectiva a 3 concepte: alienare, asimilare etnica si criza ulterioara a identitatii.  Introduction   After World War II, Jewish-American literature started to shape its own genre and become very popular in the American literary mainstream. Critic Max Schulz considers that this was due to the “nobility of the state of Israel after the Holocaust... [which] has renewed the Jew’s pride in Jewishness” (5), so that he does not hide it away in exclusively Jewish ghettoes but tries to reconstruct it in American society. Although, Saul Bellow and Philip Roth are first-rate Jewish-American representatives of this new cultural tendency, they both rejected this label out of the desire to be “writers who happen to be Jews”. In an essay, “Starting out in Chicago”, Bellow rejects being placed into this category stating that: “I am often described as a Jewish writer in much the same way one might be called a Samoan astronomer or an Eskimo cellist” (49). He further wonders whether “Philip Roth and Bernard Malamud and I have not become the Hart, Schaffner and Marx of our trade” (49). As James Atlas points out, they saw themselves “as belonging to the mainstream” (290), as Americans of Jewish origin. This attitude may be also traced in the characters that populate their novels. Roth writes in a different style from Bellow’s, but he has definitely found inspiration in the latter’s literary endeavours. As James Atlas noticed, Roth came out from under Bellow’s coat. If Bellow is more concerned with the mystique of being Jewish and the way one relates his rich heritage to the modern Wasteland of postwar America, Roth represents a later stage in the drama of Jewish assimilation. Where Bellow’s resolutely American character still bore traces of his immigrant parentage (they spoke Yiddish, were city bred, struggled to decipher a new world), Roth’s grew up in the suburbs. He is more concerned in his early novels with the emotional dynamics of a Jewish rearing. Jewishness is thus conceived as “a psychological condition to be worked through on the couch or in print” (Rubin-Dorsky 91), while his characters are continually rebelling against the taboos of “ the world of our Fathers.” In his later novels, he will broaden the scope and the attitude of his novels, by relating the private theme of Jewish identity to the public political life of America. Thus, the issues connected to Jewish identity are reflected in the background of historical change and disruption. At first sight, a direct comparison between Bellow and Roth might seem inappropriate, all the more so as Bellow has been regarded in literary circles as a serious writer, whereas Roth was many times the object of ridicule in the T. V. showsof the 70s, in Johnny Carson’s more exactly, where his guests would say that they like Mr. Roth’s work but they would not want to shake hands with him (because of the incessant masturbation depicted in Portnoy’s Complaint). Another critical reaction was that of hurt Jewish pride, because of his satiric use of Jewish stereotypes which would produce laughter for the Gentiles and embarrassment for the Jewish community. Nevertheless, what they both share is the intention to transcend the local interest of their works and reach universality, by revealing a stifled human cry in the plights of their Jewish characters. Saul Bellow’s novels evince an indebtedness to his Jewish, European and American heritage that imbue the majority of his characters. These are expressed in the ideas, the attitudes and the “moral vision” that permeate his works. Critic Brigitte Scheer-Schaezler clearly underscores the characteristics of these influences: his Jewish background has shaped “his rejection of despair and allegiance to survival – a hallmark of Jewishness developed in the course of unending persecutions of Jews leading to his moral seriousness or moral stance” (2). His epistemological quest derives from the European tradition and it is enriched with the celebration, possibility, and choice, the belief in the dignity and importance of the individual who has the ability to rescue himself from the confusing whirlpool of everyday life. Therefore, his novels are structured as double identity quests:   On a cultural level, they depict the painful and ludicrous Americanization of a hero caught between the academic teachings and culture of his European forefathers on the one hand and pragmatic America on the other; on an existential ...