American Writing

As an intellectual born in a Jewish immigrant family,Saul Bellow was well-read,having rich knowledge on history,philosophy,anthropology and sociology,connecting literature and art with society directly.Facing the constantly emerging post-war social questions and spiritual crises of American society,the novelist Saul Bellow was depressed and sentimental for the social situation,to describe a real and vivid picture scroll of modern American society as“a social historian”.When critics and reporters emphasized his identity as a Jewish writer every time,he once contradicted:“what I wrote is America”.For his words,many people thought that he more minded his identity as a Jew,like the overwhelming majority who wanted to assimilate into the mainstream of American society,as a result,some researchers with a rebellious attitude put even more energy into studying Bellow's national character,that is,Jewishness.However,what Bellow said is correct,and what he wrote really is America.Although many figures in his works are Jews,they all live in America and are affected by American politics,economic and culture all the time.The emergence of some social phenomena can't break away from the whole environment in America.In addition,many characters in Saul Bellow's works aren't Jews,and Bellow hasn't the same narrow national character as Synge and Malamud.His focus is always on American real life,and his works are regarded as the development history of American society from the 1920s to the end of the century.Therefore,it is much necessary to research the“Americanness”of his creation.The“Americanness”of Bellow's literature creation is relative,which is different from the generalized Americanness,but is relative to“Jewishness”of his creation(It is undoubtedly that there are many Jewish elements in his literature works).Although his literature creation was included into“American Jewish literature”under many works of American literature history,“American Jewish literature”is a quite ambiguous concept,because it is not a creation genre or a literature movement.Indeed,American Jewish writers have not come to an unified literature characteristic on creation ideological trends,subject matters,the tendency of the connotation,artistic tastes and aesthetic approaches.If the definition of the concept“American Jewish literature”is mainly based on Jewish writers'ethnic background and some applications and performances for Jewish life in his works,Jewish writers,in addition to having the same Jewish background,present great differences on the concrete application of Jewish materials,Jewish traditional values,and other aspects.The reason why Bellow publicly opposes he is grouped as a“Jewish writer”is that he thinks he is an American in the first place,as an American citizen,deeply influenced by American traditional culture and ideological trend,being good at observing the society and lives from the perspective of America.Therefore,American social lives become the source of materials in his creation.The“Americanness”of Bellow's literature creation is mainly reflected in three aspects:firstly,although most leading characters of his works are Jews,Bellow mainly presents the lives of ordinary citizens and intellectuals in America through his writing of their stories,rather than other Jewish writers who focus merely on the situation and mental state of Jews as an ethnic minority;secondly,Bellow shows a broad picture scroll of American society and history with his works,from the economic changes of America(The Great Depression in the late 1920s,the numerous efforts made by“The New Deal”on saving the economic crisis in the 1930s,the gradually stabilized economy in the 1940s,the entering“The Affluent Society”in the 1950s,as well as the gradual development into the post-industrial age and the post-modern consumer society)to the political changes of America(the loose atmosphere in the field of thoughts in the 1920s and 1930s,America's entry into the Second World War,the Cold War after WWII,the alienation of democracy,the nuclear race between the superpowers,America's troubles in the Vietnam War,the students'rebellion in the 1960s,America's outer space development and Star Wars Program,etc.),and the changes of American cities(although America has achieved urbanization in the 1920s,the cities are still in the process of constant development in the ensuing years.Bellow not only describes the development after the 1920s,but also recalles the previous situation through the characters'situation and their thinking in his works,especially the entire development history of Chicago),which goes far beyond the narrow vision of certain a particular race;thirdly,more American ideals and values were reflected in Bellow's works:Bellow believes that the core of“American Dream”lies in the idealism of common people,the intellectuals'defense on American thoughts of“freedom,equality,justice,democracy and prosperity”,and the individualism and pragmatism were reflected in the words and deeds of each individual.The religious beliefs and moral ideals of Jewish people are often powerless in the face of reality,as a result,they are often the objects that are reflective in his works,rather than other Jewish writers with the persistent standpoint and maintained dogmas.The research object of this thesis is to establish Saul Bellow's distinct and bright image as an“American writer”through the study of the“Americanness”of Saul Bellow's literature creation.Though this paper plans to research the“Americanness”of Bellow's literature creation from the perspective of sociology and new historicism,to reveal how Saul Bellow disposes historical events by the way of emplotment,turns American history into his story characterized by individuality,as well as the sociological thoughts in his creation.It is impossible to completely stack materials according to the concept,but to selectively focus on some aspects of the“Americanness”in Bellow's literature creation.The paper,respectively from the vertical direction---the period of The Great Depression to the post-modern society,and the horizontal direction---the two cities Chicago and New York,develops the narration,to reveal how Bellow describes America with historical events,the characters'destinies and the interaction between the real cities and the literary ones.In his works,there are some major historical events,including The Great Depression,the World War II,McCarthyism,the ideological emancipation in the 1960s,the confrontation between the East and the West in the Cold War,America's space program,the rise of postmodernism at the end of the 20~thh century,etc.Besides,there are the historical changes of urban culture,the warmth and indifference in ordinary American people's daily lives,the persistence and betrayal of beliefs,and urban violence and crime,etc.These trivial details construct the real America.The First Chapter Introduction sorts out the research status on Saul Bellow,and puts forward the author's own arguments,research methods and research thinking.After that,this paper expounds the“Americanness”of Bellow's literature creation in six chapters,mainly focusing on the three main aspects in his works:civilian life,the condition of the intellectuals,and American cities.The Second Chapter The 1920s---1940s:the Great Picture Scroll of Civilian Life in The Great Depression mainly analyzes how Bellow described the various aspects of the social life in America's second largest city Chicago after America's economic crisis outbreak in the late 1920s,around the leading character Augie March's experiences,according to his full-length novel The Adventures of Augie March.He presented the impacts of America's economic crisis on all levels of the society,the collapse of the American Dream,the resistance and great efforts to change their destinies in the face of the trend of the bankruptcy and unemployment,and how the leading character struggled in hardships while sticking to his ideals and beliefs.The Third Chapter The 1950s:the American Tragedy in the Affluent Society,with the different fates of the two figures Humboldt and Citrine in the novel Humboldt?s Gift,tells that,as time passes by,the man who had pursued his personal fortune by all means has become a hero or a winner today,to be an example learned and followed by people;The periods that people enjoyed life in difficulties and that there were full of the spirit of romanticism and idealism having come to an end;The vulgar materialism contaminated the entire American society,even have already deeply permeated the society's nerve terminals;whereas,the intellectuals and poets,who didn't mix with the society,but loved the good and beauty,and adhered to their ideals,were destroyed by American society.The present“American Tragedy”really is that romanticism,the passion for poetry,poets and artists are damaged and destroyed by the whole society.The Fourth Chapter The 1960s:Lamentations of the Era,according to the experiences of Herzog,points out that the terror caused by McCarthyism still threatened some intellectuals in the early 1960s.They were afraid of being liable to be blamed frequently,so they had to keep their thoughts and views in the mind,instead of interacting with others.The young initiated the rebel movement in order to transform the situation of America,while the impulsion and extreme of the young led the rebel movement to a wrong road.Although young people wanted to get rid of the bondage of the modern social system and transformed the real society into their ideal one,what the majority in the movement pursued was self-expression and vent rather than self-control.The feeling of the defeat and failure of the rebel movement made many young people lose heart,and then they negatively escaped from the reality,or fell into depravity with the depressed mood.Bellow attacked strongly the extremism through Semler's information and experience in New York.The Fifth Chapter The 1970s---1980s:democratic Irony,by analyzing the two works The Dean?s December and More Die of Heartbreak,explains that although American society has always been known for flaunting its democracy,the value system of American democracy has been severely damaged in the modern society,and the gaps in domestic races and between the rich and the poor are ignored,instead,striking and repressing the actions aiming to break the current situation,in order to maintain the seeming harmony of the society.In America,the fundamental role of the constitutionalism is to prevent the government from abusing power and preserve the general freedom and rights of citizens.However,the reality doesn't often accord with hopes,that is,the current American government is undermining the rights of citizens in the name of fairness and justice.The Sixth Chapter American Post-modernism:the Individual Life is Constantly Shifting and Wobbling analyzes Bellow's last full-length novel Ravelstein to state that people in the modern society wake up from the nightmare of modernity and its control reason as well as the worship to the totality,and get into the loose diversification of postmodern surface.The individual lives are constantly wobbling,and they show heterogeneous and unstable characters in many issues,such as gender identity,religious faith and sexual orientation,and rational thought judgment,then they indulge in the revelries of wearing down spirit,objecting to the mainstream and blasphemy.The Seventh Chapter The Tale of Two Cities:Chicago and New York horizontally researches the depiction of American cities in Bellow's works,pointing out that the reason why the places of stories in his works mainly in Chicago and New York is that he experienced the history changes of the two cities,witnessed their prosperity and decline,and had the love-hate feelings,as well as also that New York and Chicago are the representatives of the typical modern urban life and the symbol and epitome of the American contemporary civilization and contemporary urban civilization.Hence,in his revelation,these scenes,which is from the dilapidated urban scenes in the period of The Great Depression to the wonderful and colorful scenes of American metropolis in the late 20th century,are presented to us.