摘 要

艾萨克·什维斯·辛格是一位著名的美国犹太作家，发表过多部长篇小说和短篇小说集，在写作中始终坚持犹太特色，揭露犹太民族的悲惨命运。《来自美国的儿子》是辛格最出名的短篇小说之一，生动描绘了一战前东欧犹太人的生活图景，体现出辛格的写作特点。

本文旨在从历史-宗教维度解读《来自美国的儿子》的主题思想，即分别分析老一辈和年轻一辈犹太人对其待传统和宗教的态度。通过研究，本文发现尽管儿子塞缪尔在生活方式和所处社会文化背景上与其父母伯尔和蓓查有较大差异，但他们都坚守犹太传统，笃信犹太教义，表现出对犹太文化的深刻认同。

本文分为四章。第一章简要介绍作家辛格和他的作品以及文献综述。第二章从历史角度分析小说的主题思想，表现出犹太人对犹太传统和习俗的认同。第三章则从宗教角度探讨小说的主题思想。通过讨论两代人对犹太教持有的态度，本文旨在揭示他们以不同的方式坚守犹太教。第四章总结全文，指出论文研究的局限性，并展望未来研究的可能性。

关键词： 艾萨克·什维斯·辛格；《来自美国的儿子》；犹太历史；文化认同；犹太教

Abstract

As an American Jewish writer with great reputation, Issac Bashevis Singer has published a number of novels and short story collections, always adhering to the Jewish characteristics in his writing which reveals Jews’ tragic destiny. The Son from America, one of Singer’s best-known short stories, vividly depicts the lives of Eastern European Jews before WWI and is typical of Singer’s writing style.

This paper aims at interpreting the motif of The Son from America from a historical-religious perspective, analyzing the old and young Jews’ attitudes towards their tradition and religion respectively. The study finds that although Berl and Bercha differ from their son in lifestyle and the sociocultural context where they are respectively situated, they all stick to Jewish values and doctrines, reflecting their in-depth consensus on cherishing Jewish culture.

This paper consists of four chapters. The first chapter includes an introduction to Issac Bashevis Singer, his works and literature review. Chapter Two analyzes the motif of the short story from the historical perspective, presenting Jews’ identification with Jewish tradition and custom. Chapter Three explores the motif from the religious perspective. By discussing the two generations’ attitudes towards Judaism, this study intends to reveal that they both firmly believe in Judaism but in different manners. The last chapter concludes the research by addressing limitations and proposing the further study of the story.

Key Words: Issac Bashevis Singer; The Son From America; Jewish history;

cultural identification; Judaism

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Issac Bashevis Singer and his works 1

1. 2 Literary review 2

1.3 Structure of the paper 3

2 Analysis of the Motif from the Historical Perspective 4

1. 1 Crisis of Jewish people 4

2.1.1 Exiling Jews 4

2.1.2 Immigration to other countries 5

2.2 Identification with Jewish history 6

2.2.1 Berl's and Berlcha's identification and preservation 6

2.2.2 Samuel's identification and adaptation 7

3 Analysis of the Motif from the Religious Perspective 9

1. 1 Crisis of Judaism 9

3.1.1 Shock of modernization 9

3.1.2 Temptation of money 10

3.2 Identification with Judaism 11

3.2.1 Berl's and Berlcha's identification and persistence 11

3.2.2 Samuel's identification and innovation 12

4 Conclusion 13

4.1 Summary 13

4.2 Limitations and further study 13

References 15

Acknowledgments 16

Interpreting the Motif of The Son from America from a Historical-Religious Perspective

1 Introduction

1.1 Issac Bashevis Singer and his works

Issac Bashevis Singer, the winner of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a representative American Jewish writer. Brought up in an orthodox Jewish family, Singer is under the great influence of Jewish culture and tradition throughout his life (Duamp;Wang, 2009: 128). As a leading figure in the Yiddish literary movement, Singer always insists on writing and publishing works solely in Yiddish. Singer touches on various literary genres including novels, short stories, essays, memoirs and other works. His novels and short stories usually depict the Eastern European Jewish community where he has once lived. After moving to America, Singer portrays the situation of the Jewish immigrants and their pursuit of an elusive American dream. The theme of betrayal and return of Jewish culture runs through his writing career (Chengamp;Zheng, 2001: 57). His writing style is characterized by combining realistic techniques and fantasies of supernatural descriptions. Singer’s works mainly reflect the strong Jewish character and indicate the diversity of American literature as well.

Singer is a productive writer and his representative novels include The Family Moskat (1950), The Magician of Lublin (1960), The Slaw (1692), etc. He has also published some successful short story collections such as Gimpel the Fool and Other Stories and A Crown of Features and Other Stories. The Son from America is one of Singer’s best short stories, set in a small village in Poland before WWI. It is a story about cultural shock and root seeking in the Jewish community. Samuel, Berl and Bercha’s son, returned home in the village of Lentshin after living in America for forty years. Samuel’s return caused a stir in the peaceful village because people kept asking him some questions about America which was a strange country for them. While Samuel had changed considerably, the whole village remained what it was forty years ago. The old generation were content with their pristine lifestyle, far from any forms of industrial civilization. The story echoes with Singer’s personal experiences and presents a sharp contrast of attitudes between generations. Yet, they still have something in common, that is, they adamantly uphold their Jewish culture and custom.

1.2 Literary review

In the western literary circle, studies on Issac Bashevis Singer became popular after Singer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978, before which there were few English versions for his works. Singer could not translate on his own at first, so he turned to his great peer Saul Bellow for the right version (Zaritt, 2016: 559). Critics mainly focused on Singer’s Jewishness and religious themes since he was a zealous believer in Judaism. Comments on Singer usually got polarized because of different cultural backgrounds. Leonard Kriegel spoke highly of Singer’s literary achievement, especially his Yiddish writing. He appraised that “it was Singer who would embody for the literary world the voice of the destroyed shtetl among the Yiddish writers” (Kriegel, 2005: 334). By contrast, other critics did not attach such importance to Singer’s works. For example, Zaritt expressed the suspicion for Singer’s literary status, claiming that “Singer encountered an undecidability in trying to compensate for the linguistic uncertainty of Yiddish in the transnational and translational US landscape” (Zaritt, 2016: 558). The first few years of the twenty first century witnessed the productive fruits of Singer studies varying from anthologies to monographs (Wiegand, 2008: 800).

In China, studies on Singer sprang up in the 1980s since he won the the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature. Many mainstream literary magazines introduced Singer’s biography and works, enabling Chinese readers to know the famous American Jewish writer. However, the studies seemed to be transient because domestic scholars paid more attention to other modernist writers such as Franz Kafka and James Joyce under the influence of the modern context (Wei, 2012: 80). It was not until the 21^st century that the research on Singer achieved great breakthroughs for the literary circle realized the uniqueness in Singer’s works. Singer’s Jewish background and spiritual exploration attracted more Chinese researchers. Many of his works were reintroduced and translated into different versions, providing a new perspective for Chinese literary creation (Wei, 2012: 81).