Jewishness In Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977-) is one of the outstanding figures of the third generation Jewish writersin America. So far, this young writer has published4books, including three novels and one nonfictionalbook. As the author of bestselling novels and the winner of numerous awards, Foer has achievedwidespread critical acclaim. He is included in Granta’s Best of Young American Novelists. Due to hisfrequent use of modernist literary devices, Foer is regarded as new Philip Roth. The novel discussed in thisthesis is his second novel Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close, published in2005. Taking9/11attacks andthe bombing of Dresden as the backdrop, he displays a panoramic view of trauma since twentieth century.Unlike his widely acclaimed first novel Everything is illuminated which is set in the wake of the Holocaust,Foer plays down the Jewish factors in his second novel, yet readers can still find the implicit Jewishness init.With Jewish background, Foer’s writings always shine with the essence of Jewish culture. This thesisintends to discuss the implicit Jewishness in Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close both in themes and innarrative strategies. It aims to see how Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close relates to Jewish culture thatcontains the history of the Jewish people and the corpus of Jewish American literature.The thesis will be divided into five parts. The first part gives a brief introduction of Jonathan SafranFoer as well as his book Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close, and then addresses the necessity of makingsense of the novel under the lens of Jewishness. Chapter one talks about the Jewishness and the universalityof Jewishness. It is claimed that there is a universal appeal in the Jewishness for it can not only explain theJewish issues, but also is suitable for common human experience. Chapter two sets out to interpret thenovel in the context of cultural motifs and themes in the Jewish tradition to see how the recurrent themesare retained or recreated in the novel, such as wandering, quest and the Holocaust. The third chapter isdedicated to a study of Foer’s Jewish consciousness reflected in his unique narrative techniques. Like manyJewish American writers, Foer not only pays attention to the content of the novel, but also attaches greatimportance to narrative strategies. Besides, it is also important to note how these approaches arecomprehensively used to highlight the themes. The conclusion restates author’s arguments and affirms Foer’s treatment of Jewishness in his work. The questions which focused on in Foer’s novels are also theissues of common concern in Jewish writers; therefore, Foer’s way of thinking stems from Jewish culture.This thesis interprets Foer’s Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close under the lens of Jewishness to explore theprofound influences of Jewish culture on Foer’s potential consciousness and his literary creation, hoping tooffer a new perspective for the study of Extremely Loud&Incredibly Close.