Reconstruction Of The Jewish Identity In Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock From The Perspective Of Cultural Trauma

Philip Roth(1933-)is one of the most distinctive Jewish novelists in the contemporary American literary world.Operation Shylock,written by Philip Roth in 1993,interprets the present living conditions of the Jewish people and two completely different political stances:Diasporism and Zionism from the viewpoint of the Jew who has returned to Israel.This thesis attempts to interpret Roth’s traumatic narration and identity crisis of the Jewish nation by making a thorough analysis of Operation Shylock on the basis of cultural trauma.Chapter one introduces the achievement of Philip Roth,the author,and the current researches of Operation Shylock at home and abroad.Chapter two discusses the theoretical connotation of cultural trauma,laying the theoretical foundation for the textual analysis.Cultural trauma is a kind of suffering experience experienced by a group,not only related to the individual’s identity,but also related to the group’s identity,which has an indelible effect on an individual and a group.Chapter three focuses on the cultural trauma of the Jewish nation,specifing the cultural trauma.Since the beginning of human civilization,the Jewish people have gone through a lot of pains,such as the worldwide exclusion.Moreover,during the Second World War,the Holocaust on the Jews from German Nazi was even more fatal to the Jewish nation,leaving an eternal trauma on the collective consciousness of the Jewish people.Chapter four is based on the text to explore the symptoms of cultural trauma.Two different political stances:diasporism advocated by Pipik and Zionism supported by Smilesburger are actually two different political choices made by the Jews after suffering cultural trauma.Furthermore,the Jews such as Philip Roth who have been in diaspora for a long time will certainly suffer a serious identity crisis when they return to Israel and are trapped between these two political stances,which is exactly the symptom of their cultural trauma.Chapter five is about the reconstruction of Jewish identity of the protagonist,Philip Roth.When the Jews in diaspora represented by Philip Roth return to Israel,they can regain the Jewish consciousness and reconstruct their Jewish identity by virtue of their Jewish spirit to confront the cultural trauma.Through blurring the boundary between reality and novel,Philip Roth points to the separation of social identity and self-identity which the vast majority of Jews will experience with the concept of splitting self or dual self by shaping the true and false Philip.In fact,all of these have been rooted in the cultural trauma suffered by the Jewish people,which has a great influence on them,so that they are at a loss as to what to do in the process of finding the destination of their lives,especially for the Jews with dual identity who live in the other countries.Through the writing of Operation Shylock,Philip Roth aims that the Jewish people can get rid of the historical burden and get relief from the Jewish cultural trauma.Consequently,from the perspective of cultural trauma,this thesis will have a better interpretation of the traumatic psychology and identity of the Jewish people,making a contribution to the studies of Operation Shylock.