INEVITABLE EXILES: CYNTHIA OZICK'S VIEW OF THE PRECARIOUSNESS OF JEWISH EXISTENCE IN A GENTILE WORLD (SHORT STORIES)

Cynthia Ozick, a unique and challenging Jewish writer, is a striking contrast to such contemporaries as Bellow, Malamud and Roth. Rejecting assimilation and the synthesis of Western humanism, she is one of the most engaged advocates of preserving the Jewish heritage in the prevailing Gentile culture. This dissertation provides an extended and cohesive analysis of her major tales disclosing her masterly skills in description and characterization and the richness of her language and literary devices.;The conclusion scrutinizes Cynthia Ozick's aversion to various forms of idolatry which, in her view, obviate individual conscience and constitute the ultimate threat to Judaism and the morally informed behavior that ought to be the hallmark of humanity.;By identifying and examining her technical virtuosity and interpreting the ideas and arguments advanced by these devices, this study demonstrates how she skirts didactic or polemical debate in order to create a distinct and enduring art. It reflects the means by which she utilizes myth and mysticism to highlight the perturbed state of Jewish heritage in the predominately Gentile society. It exposes Cynthia Ozick's view of the consequences of the insurmountable confrontation of the two conceptions of the world--the Hellenistic and the Judaic--on the Jewish faith and cultures. It emphasizes her position that all attempts to escape Judaism by assimilation have little chance of success and that the return to the God of the Fathers is the only way to solve the problem of alienation.