Overview
- Summary
- The thesis explores the problem of the impact of the Holocaust on the consciousness of the North American Jew who did not experience the tragedy directly. Mordecai Richler's writing manifests preoccupation with the Holocaust and with anti-Semitism in general. The writer's exploration of the Jewish post-Holocaust consciousness focuses on the relationships between Jews and general society. On the one hand, the failure of liberalism to implement the ideals of justice and brotherhood of men inhibits the integration of the Jews into gentile society; on the other hand, recent history of Jewish suffering prompts the Jew to deny his bonds with his heritage. Deep anxiety and loss of faith in humanist liberal values implant a sense of insecurity and alienation in the North American Jew. Richler's Jewish characters vacillate between identification with nihilistic post-war struggle and assertiveness of the Jewishness demonstrated through the fantasy of the avenger of the Holocaust. In his work, Richler manifests inability to resolve his conflict between Jewish assimilation and Jewish identity. The resolution seems forever elusive; the spectre of the Holocaust seems to have destroyed the necessary trust and optimism for a harmonious coexistence between the Jew and the gentile. The darkening picture of the corrupt relationships between the Jews and the gentile world is expressed in the increasingly satiric vision of the moralist. The precariousness of possible Jewish-gentile coexistence is marked by the use of the ironic. Finally, Richler's view of the post-Holocaust consciousness is compared to the experience of other Canadian Jewish writers. The need to redefine the nature of Jewish interaction with the gentile world in the post-Holocaust reality preoccupies Richler's contemporaries. Like Richler, these writers demonstrate the crisis of Jewish identity in the post-Holocaust world. The problem of Richler's post-Holocaust consciousness is examined through the analysis of the recurring themes in his fiction and the manifest concerns of his characters. Particular attention is placed on the understanding of the use of literary modes in the representation of Jewish-gentile relations.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1986
- Notes
-
Dissertations and Theses
Physical Details
- Language
- Undetermined
- ISBN
- 9780315309142
- Additional Form
-
Electronic version(s) available online.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-06-21 20:02:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib246715/
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