The Fragmented Man Gets Transformed Due to the Sufferings
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Survival Through Sufferings in Bernard Malamud's the Assistant
European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine ISSN 2515-8260 Volume 07, Issue 08, 2020 I Suffer For You: Survival Through Sufferings In Bernard Malamud's The Assistant. Resliya.M. S1, V.M. Berlin Grace2, D. David Wilson3 1 Department of English, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore – 641114 2 Department of Biotechnology, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore – 641114 3Associate Professor Department of English Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences,Coimbatore – 641114 e-mail: [email protected] Abstract Life is a tragedy full of joy- stated by Bernard Malamud, one of the most important Jewish-American writers, while explaining the characteristic mixture of sorrow and comedy in his works. His parents are Russian Immigrants. His writings have universal appeal. Malamud is mainly preoccupied with the complex faith of being a Jew. The major concerns of Malamud's heroes are suffering, commitment and responsibility. Despite their guilt-ridden past, they suffer for a new life. Suffering enabled by their commitment and gratitude towards a more perfect life. These acts of heroism are not acts of self, but derived from or created responsibility towards another soul. The moral vision of Malamud synthesizes values common to Judaic, Greek and Christian traditions. Thus, it is pertinent to not that all the major Malamudian chracters to become more human through their journey of sufferings. They offers the possibility of humanism for the sufferers and that is central to the moral vision. In this article I would like to discuss the characters of Bernard Malamud, with special reference to his second novel The Assistant. -
Reconsidering Bernard Malamud's Seductresses
Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 1996 "Maybe I Have Character Too": Reconsidering Bernard Malamud's Seductresses Jeff aV nde Zande Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Vande Zande, Jeff, ""Maybe I Have Character Too": Reconsidering Bernard Malamud's Seductresses" (1996). Masters Theses. 1927. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/1927 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THESIS REPRODUCTION CERTIFICATE TO: Graduate Degree Candidates (who have written formal theses) SUBJECT: Permission to Reproduce Theses The University Library is rece1v1ng a number of requests from other institutions asking permission to reproduce dissertations for inclusion in their library holdings. Although no copyright laws are involved, we feel that professional courtesy demands that permission be obtained from the author before we allow theses ta be copied. PLEASE SIGN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS: Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University has my permission to lend my thesis to a reputable college or university for the purpose of copying it for inclusion in that institution 1 s library or research holdings. I respectfully request Booth Library of Eastern Illinois University -
The Role of Religion in American Jewish Satire
Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE 1-1-2015 All Joking Aside: The Role of Religion in American Jewish Satire Jennifer Ann Caplan Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Caplan, Jennifer Ann, "All Joking Aside: The Role of Religion in American Jewish Satire" (2015). Dissertations - ALL. 322. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/322 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT Jewish humor is a well-known, if ill-defined genre. The prevalence and success of Jewish comedians has been a point of pride for American Jews throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What I undertake in this dissertation is to isolate one particular form of humor—namely satire—and use it as a way to analyze the changing relationship of American Jews to traditional religious forms. I look at the trends over three generations, the third generation (who came of age in the 40s and 50s), the Baby Boom generation (who came of age in the 60s and 70s) and the contemporary generation (who came of age in the 80s and 90s). When the satire produced by each generation is analyzed with the depiction of Judaism and Jewish practices in mind a certain pattern emerges. By then reading that pattern through Bill Brown’s Thing Theory it becomes possible to talk about the motivations for and effects of the change over time in a new way. -
ENG 351 Lecture 27 1 Let's Look at Malamud First — and It's Malamud
ENG 351 Lecture 27 1 Let’s look at Malamud first — and it’s Malamud, Bernard Malamud. Everybody’s probably seen the film — the Robert Redford movie, The Natural, which is based on Malamud’s first novel, loosely. The novel and the movie are very different. The novel certainly does not end the way the movie does, with the balls bouncing off the lights and all that. It’s not that way at all. Malamud was born in Brooklyn and took a Master’s degree at Columbia. Was another one of our university teachers. He taught at Bennington from 1961 until he died in 1986 — or until he retired. His second novel was The Assistant in 1957. The Fixer, 1966, is a very strange book. It’s a historical novel set in Russia during the Czar’s times. About a Jewish handyman who’s accused of murdering a Christian child in some kind of ritual murder. It’s part of this anti-Semitic background of Russia at the time. Toward the end of his life he began to experiment with form — postmodern forms, Dubin’s Lies and things like that, that I find very difficult reading. But the stories in “The Magic Barrel,” a first collection, 1958, are absolutely wonderful and I recommend that collection to you. Well, I’m making that big statement here. Malamud is one of several -- probably the lesser light of several important Jewish writers who showed up, kind of starting with Norman Mailer after World War II in the ‘40s and were writing in the ‘50s and ‘60s. -
Bernard Malamud: a Centennial Tribute
European journal of American studies Reviews 2018-4 Victoria Aarons and Gustavo Sánchez Canales, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Centennial Tribute Paule Lévy Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14153 ISSN: 1991-9336 Publisher European Association for American Studies Electronic reference Paule Lévy, “Victoria Aarons and Gustavo Sánchez Canales, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Centennial Tribute”, European journal of American studies [Online], Reviews 2018-4, Online since 07 March 2019, connection on 18 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14153 This text was automatically generated on 18 July 2021. Creative Commons License Victoria Aarons and Gustavo Sánchez Canales, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Centenni... 1 Victoria Aarons and Gustavo Sánchez Canales, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Centennial Tribute Paule Lévy 1 Victoria Aarons and Gustavo Sánchez Canales, eds. Bernard Malamud: A Centennial Tribute 2 Wayne State University Press, 2016. Pp. 320. ISBN: 978-0-8143-4114-8 3 Paule Lévy 4 This collection of essays, written in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the writer’s birth, brings together a variety of critical voices, both from the United States and Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Greece). It is an attempt to illustrate the richness and complexity of Malamud’s work through international and cross-cultural dialog: an appropriate approach as Malamud’s fiction is literally haunted by European history and landscapes. This carefully constructed volume falls into two parts: American, then European contributions. Each part is introduced separately and subdivided in two: Malamud’s novels on the one hand, his short fiction on the other. This diverse perspectival reach generates a fruitful counterpoint as the articles play off one another to show differences as well as overlapping concerns. -
Introduction
INTRODUCTION Having been exhausted with the different forms of expression such as poetry, prose, essay and drama for many centuries, the writers longed to adopt a new mode of expression and it resulted in the emerge of novel. The novel owes its interest to the curiosity of humanity in the realm of human passion and action. While the drama is subordinate to stage effects, the novel is independent of them. Although the novel is defined as a long narrative in prose, Marion Crawford terms it as ‘pocket theatre’. The novel started becoming popular right from the early eighteenth century not only in England but also in America. The writers also feel comfortable at making use of novel as a tool to analyse the social, moral, cultural and political problems of the day. Of them, Bernard Malamud, a distinguished twentieth century novelist of American Jewish society, was born in 1914 in Brooklyn, New York to Bertha Malamud and Max Malamud. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia who lived with a meagre income from a small grocery store they ran in Brooklyn. Despite their poverty and lack of formal education, they encouraged their son’s desire for education. Malamud studied at the City College and Columbia University in New York. In 1940 he got a job at Erasmus Hall Evening High School in Brooklyn, where he had his school education. Even as a school boy he started writing stories which were published in the school magazine. In 2 1945 he married Ann de Chiara, an Italian. The couple had a son, Paul and a daughter, Janna. -
A Talk with Bernard Malamud
A Talk with Bernard Malamud Ji-moon Koh Chonnam Nat'l Univ. I was fortunate to meet Mr. Malamud and have this interview after he read my article, "Bernard Malamud's Renewal of the Human Spirit," which deals with three of his seven novels, The Assistant and A New Life and Dubin's Lives. AU of these novels are written with his own definition of art, on the basic theme of self-transcend ence, exploring the idea of suffering, and with deft use of irony. The article, which will be published in the annual journal of American Studies Association of Korea, examines the fact that the heroes in his navels have the belief that their life can renew itself and yearn for a better life, even though they get extremely caught up in isolation and suffer deep frustration. I sent the article to Mr. Malamud who was a 1981""'1982 fellow of Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California. On February 2, 1982, I interviewed him at his office which overlooks Stanford University. He had many enlightening comments about art, suffer ing, self-transcendence, morality, democracy, freedom, love, Zen Buddhism, the image of a bird in his novels, the technique of foreshadowing, and translations. He is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories: The Natural(l952) The Assistant (1957) , A New Lzje(l961), The Fixer (l966), Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition (I969) , The Tenanfs(I971) , Dubin's Lives (l979), The Magic Barrel (l958), Idiots First (l963) , and Rembrandt's Haf(I973). Q: In an interview with Daniel Stern, you made the following definition of art: "It (at:t) tends toward morality. -
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach And
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach and Studies ISSN NO:: 2348 – 537X Transcendentalism as seen in Malamud’s “The Assistant” R. Prakash* & Dr. S. Karthik Kumar** *Research Scholar, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. **Assistant Professor of English, Annamalai University, Chidambaram. ABSTRACT: This article tries to present the different varieties of Transcendence observed in the novel The Assistant of Bernard Malamud. Not only that, it also attempts to prove on how such transcendence of the characters occur by fixing an idealistic or Utopian aim in their minds. A short plan of the article can be seen as follows: CHARACTERS IDEALISTIC/UTOPIAN AIM TYPE OF TRANCENDENCE 1. Morris Bober Perfect Jew Spiritual Transcendence 2. Frank Alpine Earlier – St. Francis of Assissi Moral Transcendence Later – Morris Bober 3. Helen Bober Well educated, realized creature. Empirical Transcendence Transcendentalism as Seen in Malamud’s “The Assistant” Literature, as seen till today, serves in a way to project the views of mankind. As changes occur in man‟s development in all the areas, like thoughts, conditions and so on, the literature too changes accordingly. Man always hopes and longs for something better than the already existing things. He needs betterments in all the walks of his life. One of the core beliefs of the Transcendentalist is to go beyond one‟s level of the self and to attain certain self fixed goals. Rightness, goodness and betterment are some of the core principles of transcendentalism. This transcendentalism was a philosophical movement which developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern region of the United States of America. Transcendentalists believe that goodness can be found inherent in both man and nature. -
“Disintegration and Fragmentation of Modern Man and Deterioration of Spiritual and Moral Values”
© 2019 JETIR June 2019, Volume 6, Issue 6 www.jetir.org (ISSN-2349-5162) “Disintegration and Fragmentation of Modern man and Deterioration of spiritual and moral values” Author: SREEHARI S.V. Research Scholar and Assistant Professor of English Government First Grade College, Madhugiri Tumkur District, Karnataka Co-Author: Dr. PREM CHANDAR. P. Research Guide and Assistant Professor Department of English Annamalai University Annamalai Nagar Chidambaram Tamil Nadu. Abstract The present paper focuses on the theme of disintegration and fragmentation of modern man because of man’s indescribable suffering and a sense of isolation and separation. Bernard Malamud has effectively and artistically brings out how the Jews were slaughtered during the Second World War by Hitler. The novels also focus on deterioration of moral, ethical and spiritual values and growing materialism of Americans. These novels focus on racial discrimination and the problem of apartheid and how the Jews were insulted, humiliated and tortured by Hitler and his followers in the name of religion. The novelist is very hopeful, positive and optimistic that transformation and a kind of metamorphosis might occur in the future. The characters created by him are very positive, confident and hopeful that there might be some reformation in the years to come. The socio-political and even educational factors also contribute significantly and all his novels and with an optimistic note. (Keywords: Disintegration, Fragmentation, Transformation, Deterioration, Suffering, Materialism, Degeneration, Male-female and family relations, Alienation, Humanism, Modern Man’s dilemma, Protogenist, Isolation, Identity crisis, uncertainty and insecurity) Introduction The paper throws light on the various issues and themes raised by Malamud in his novels and significance of his novels in the contemporary scenario. -
The Role of the Grocery Store in Bernard Malamud's the Assistant
The Role of the Grocery Store in Bernard Malamud’s The Assistant Bachelor Thesis English Language and Culture, Utrecht University. Nienke de Mol 3342433 Dr. Derek Rubin June 2011 1 Contents Introduction 2 1. Suffering 6 2. The Formation of a Jewish Identity 11 3. The Grocery Store 16 Conclusion 22 Bibliography Declaration of Plagiarism 2 Introduction Bernard Malamud‟s work has been greatly admired and was reviewed thoroughly throughout the twentieth century. His novels The Fixer (1966), The Natural (1952) and The Assistant (1957) in particular received critical acclaim. Although most reviews were published around the time of the novels‟ appearance and current criticism has decreased, Malamud remains an important figure in Jewish American literature. A recurring theme in Malamud‟s novels and short stories is the Jewish grocery store. “The Prison,” for example, from the collection of short stories The Magic Barrel (1958), is centred on a young man whose destiny seems to dictate a life in his grocery store. Malamud often uses elements from his own life for his writing. When he was growing up, Malamud‟s family lived above a grocery store in Brooklyn that his father owned. With a manic mother, who eventually died in a mental hospital when Malamud was in his early teens, and a sickly brother, “the store had been the prison from which Malamud had wanted to escape” (Davis 115). Malamud‟s most famous novel that is centred on a grocery store is The Assistant. The store in the novel is situated in a poor neighbourhood in New York City and the owner of the store, Morris Bober, struggles to attract customers. -
The Ivory Shtetl: the University and the Postwar Jewish Imagination
THE IVORY SHTETL: THE UNIVERSITY AND THE POSTWAR JEWISH IMAGINATION by DANIEL PAUL ANDERSON JR. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser: Dr. Judith Oster Department of English CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May 2012 2 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of ________Daniel Paul Anderson Jr_________________ candidate for the __PhD_______________degree*. (signed) _____Judith Oster________________________ (chair of the committee) ___________Michael Clune_______________________ ___________Erika Olbricht________________________ ___________Robert Spadoni_______________________ ___________Molly Berger_________________________ ______________________________________________ (date) ___17 February 2012________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................4 Abstract ..............................................................................................5 Introduction ..............................................................................................6 Chapter One Bernard Malamud’s The Tenants: The City and the Dialogic University ............................................................37 Chapter Two A New Life: The Ruined University and the Jewish Conscience .............................................................86 -
Chronology of Bernard Malamud
Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following kind people whose help and support have made the completion of the dissertation possible. First and foremost, I am pleased to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor, Professor Qiao Guoqiang. I have studied in the Graduate School of Shanghai International Studies University above three years. During that period Professor Qiao taught me by using his personal examples which have benefited me a lot. I deeply admire his immense knowledge, meticulous attitude, academic rigor and genial personality, all of which have a great effect on my study and research work. His teachings have broadened my academic perspective, enlightened my thinking and enhanced my academic literacy. He accompanied this dissertation in all its drafts and served as an ideal advisor. He gave careful guidance on both the choosing of research subject and the writing process. He not only pointed out the disadvantages and shortcomings in the drafts, but also offered many valuable ideas and suggestions. He encouraged me to fulfill this dissertation. I have special thanks to Professor Li Weiping, Professor Zhang Dingquan, Professor Yu Jianhua and Professor Shi Zhikang in Shanghai International Studies University. They also offered me enlightening lectures and constructive instructions, which have motivated my intellectual growth over the past years. Their profound understanding and love for literature, together with Professor Qiao’s, have deeply encouraged me in my pursuit of literature studies. I extend genuine thanks to my supportive friends. I get friendly and fruitful help and a lot of valuable suggestions from Zhang Jianfeng, Xu Meihua, Sun Ranying, Shi Yanling, Zhang Huaihai and Wu Chunying.