From Degradation To Transcendence

Isaac Bashevis Singer is an important Jewish realistic novelist and the mostfamous Yiddish writer in the20thcentury and he wins the Nobel Prize for literature in1978. His impassioned narrative art is rooted in Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, andreflects the universal human conditions. The traditional Jewish cultural themes,religious significance, suffering and salvation themes in Singer’s works are obviousand profound. Through his novels, readers can peep at his strong complex to thewhole Jewish nation. The Magician of Lublin is Singer’s most influential novel, and itpresents us one being in conflicts, the one who is a mixture of morality and evil,reason and lust, science and religion. Through the detailed analysis of the protagonistYasha Mazur, the thesis points out that this novel shows readers the pain and struggleof human beings in the presence of desires and temptations. In addition, based on “theTriple Personality Theory” of Freud’s psychoanalysis, the thesis interprets theprotagonist Yasha Mazur in The Magician of Lublin. The protagonist converts from asecular who ignores the Jewish laws, who can not get rid of the sensory pleasures andwho has inflated ambition under the force of the id to a saint who confesses his sinsand realizes the sublimation of his soul. Through analyzing the big change of YashaMazur’s personality, the thesis argues the indelible influence of asceticism andself-discipline on the improvement of the realm of life.