A Biblical Archetypal Study Of Singer's Short Stories

Isaac Bashevis Singer(1904-1991)is one of the greatest Yiddish writers as well as one of the America's most influential writers in the 20th century.By means of the dying language—Yiddish,Singer presents the Jewish world from the 17th century to the first half of the 20th century.For a man born in Poland but writing in New York,a man writing in Yiddish but being read in English,and a man looking forward past to tell of the future,Singer is a rather mysterious writer.Although the study of Singer and his works that lasts more than 50 years obtains many valuable achievements,there are many aspects to advance.The present thesis intends to interpret Singer's short story from the perspective of the biblical archetypal criticism.It uncovers the archetype character,motif,and narrative structure to demonstrate Singer's inclination to the Jewish tradition.This thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter is the introduction that examines Singer's study home and abroad.It concludes the achievements and the fields that are rarely touched by the critics.Singer's study achievements are abundant abroad made by the predecessors,meanwhile in China the study heat springs up in the recent years.However,the discussion about whether he is a "traditional writer" or a "betrayer of Israel" never ceases.And most Singer's study focuses on the novels.The added weight should be put to the short stories which Singer himself and critics take as the representation of his style.As Singer's close connection with the Jewish tradition and the Bible,the exploration of the archetypes in his work is to understand Singer's works better. Starting from his family background,we observe the influence of the Bible on him.The second chapter provides a comprehensive survey of the archetypal criticism, covering its origins,basic concepts and biblical archetypal critical tactics in the thesis.The third chapter focuses on how to apply the archetypal criticism as a critical method to analyze Singer's short stories.Through the detailed analysis of Singer's short stories,it is evident that character archetypes as scapegoat and Satan,motif archetypes exile and redemption as well as the narrative archetypes U-shaped,inverted U-shaped are widely used.The Satan character is the test stone of the Jewish tradition.Satan attempts the Jews with his weapons—money,sexual lure and false truth.It gives us an insight into the reasons why the Jews break the moral bondage and give up their belief.The scapegoat character best presents the sins and faults for the modern Jews.Singer's descriptions of the modern Jews' dark side are rooted from his ethic-anxiety and the urgent desire to change the condition.The motifs in Singer's short stories,as well as the everlasting motifs in the Jewish literature,are exile and redemption.Exile for the modern Jews is more attached to the psychological and spiritual drifting.Finding all kinds of ways to salvation does not change the exile,yet intensifies it to some extent.The redemption in Singer's stories is rather traditional.One is the transgression to the Jewish tradition;the other is the sexuality which is the essence of Cabbalism.At last,through the analysis of the narrative structure,we can see clearly Singer's attitude toward Jewish tradition.Chapter four is the conclusion which summarizes Singer's full reworking of traditional values through the use of biblical archetypes.Here,we try to explore the aims of the adoption of the biblical archetypes.Facing the difficulties and dilemma of the modern Jews,Singer,a son of Israel,holds that only embracing the Judaism and Jewish tradition can the Jews survive and develop.