Construction Of Jewish Identity In Doctorow’s Ragtime

Ragtime is the fourth novel of distinguished contemporary American novelist E. L. Doctorow and it is also one of his representative works. Published in 1975, Ragtime uses a new writing style of blending history and illusory, which creates the precedent for contemporary American literature. The novel demonstrates to readers a period of history known as "Ragtime" through three families of different kinds of races in the first decade of the 20th century. Doctorow expresses his own thinking of identity through the mouths of the characters in the novel. In the novel, Doctorow depicts a special character, a Jewish father whose name is Tateh and eventually characterizes him as a successful American Jew who was rich in economy, successful in career and enjoyed happiness of family. Ragtime reveals many historical problems in American society at that time and the Jewish identity theme in Ragtime demonstrates the unique charm of the work.Previous studies focused mainly on the postmodernism and New Historicism, the thesis uses another way to analyze the deep thinking of Doctorow through Ragtime, which helps the readers appreciate the novel from a new perspective view. Hence, the thesis gives a new guidance to the analysis of Ragtime.Under the support of identity construction theory, this thesis, apart from the introduction and conclusion, consists of three chapters. It indicates the new Jewish identity in Ragtime according to the text analysis of the novel.Ragtime constructed the Jewish identity of Tateh. Doctorow puts the historical figures and fictional characters in the same historical events; he expresses his deep thinking of historical events and strong political tendency. The thesis helps the readers understand the new Jewish identity in modern America, providing a new life style for not only Americans but also other immigrants including the Jews, the Blacks and even the Chinese.