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The Conflicted Art of Cynthia Ozick

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The Conflicted Art of Cynthia Ozick "Greek Mind/Jewish Soul, I predict, will quickly be recognized as the best work done on Ozick, by far, and one of the best books we have on a contem- porary modern writer."—Frank Lentricchia, Series Editor Since the 1970s, Cynthia Ozick's stories, novels, and essays have gradually earned high critical acclaim. Victor Strandberg's Greek Mind /Jewish Soul is a comprehensive study of this exceptionally gifted author, correlating her creative art and her intellectual development. Strandberg devotes considerable attention to Ozick's struggle to maintain her Jewish religion and culture within a society saturated with Christian and secular values. By examining the influence of Western philosophical and literary traditions on Ozick and her particular social cir- cumstances, Strandberg is able to ask larger questions about the merit of Ozick's work and its place within American literature. Strandberg begins by chronicling the cultural dilemmas of Ozick's early life. The daughter of struggling immigrant parents, Ozick sometimes endured anti-Semitic ostracism from classmates in the New York public schools. But even as she deeply immersed herself in her Judaic heritage, avidly learning Hebrew and studying Jewish history, she found the gentile heritage irresistible, beginning with fairy tales in childhood and graduating to George Eliot, Edith Wharton, and Henry James. Her studies in Latin likewise awakened a love for classical literature that impinged powerfully upon her books, particularly Trust and The Pagan Rabbi. By drawing on a range of sources, including his own ten-year correspondence with Ozick, Strandberg illuminates Ozick's thinking on volatile issues that trou- bled her during her formative years, including feminism, the Holocaust, and Jewish cultural survival. Strandberg then offers a close reading of her books and poems in chapters on Trust, The Pagan Rabbi, Bloodshed, and Levitation and presents an astute analysis of her later novels, The Cannibal Galaxy, The Messiah of Stockholm, and The Shawl. After reviewing all the critical material written to date on Ozick, Strandberg concludes by rendering his own assessment of Ozick's literary achievement. He considers how "Jewish" her work is, how "American" it is, and finally, how major her seat is at the table of the canonized. VICTOR STRANDBERG is professor of English at Duke University. His books include The Poetic Vision of Robert Penn Warren and A Faulkner Overview: Six Perspectives. He has also written many articles about contemporary American writers. The Wisconsin Project on American Writers Frank Lentricchia, General Editor The University of Wisconsin Press 114 N. Murray Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53715 ISBN 0-299-U264-7 WISEdition Original Paperback The Wisconsin Project on American Writers ' Frank Lentricchia, General Editor Author's Note: (January, 2012) I thank the University of Wisconsin Press for its permission to put this book online. Greek Mind/Jewish Soul The Conflicted Art of Cynthia Ozick by Victor Strandberg The University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press 114 North Murray Street Madison, Wisconsin 53715 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 1994 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved 54321 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Strandberg, Victor H. Greek mind/Jewish soul : the conflicted art of Cynthia Ozick / Victor Strandberg. 228 p. cm.—(The Wisconsin project on American writers) Includes bibliographical references (p. 195) and index. ISBN 0-299-14260-4 (cl.) ISBN 0-299-14264-7 (pb.) 1. Ozick, Cynthia—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Judaism in literature. 3. Jews in literature. I. Title. PS3565.Z5Z87 1994 813'.54—dc20 94-589 To Arne, Bill, and John for auld lang syne. "These grains of life will stay forever." —Cynthia Ozick Contents Preface ix Author's Note xi Chapter 1. The Matrix of Art 3 Beginnings 3 Feminism 12 Judaism 18 Jewish History 27 The Holocaust 38 Modern Israel 42 L'Chaim! and the Art of Fiction 44 Chapter 2. Readings 57 Early Pieces 57 Trust: A Kunstlerroman 62 Three Story Books: From Pan to Moses 81 The Cannibal Galaxy: Curriculum Duel 111 The Messiah of Stockholm: Gift of the Magi 124 The Shawl: Tale of Two Cities 139 Chapter 3. Judgment 152 The Critical Reckoning 152 Judeo-Christian 171 Amerikaner-Geboren 177 Major/Minor 186 Postscript: An Appreciation 188 Notes 195 Index 209 Author's Note (January, 2012): For easier readability, I have converted the text into a Microsoft Word format . Preface About ten years ago, I received a surprise invitation from William Scheick to write a long essay on Cynthia Ozick for a Special Issue of his journal, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, which was to be devoted to three neglected women writers (Ozick, Shirley Hazzard, and Anne Redmon). Not knowing Ozick's work, I looked at her only available books (The Pagan Rabbi and Bloodshed), judged them to be first-rate, and accepted the invitation. The resulting essay, which was published in the Summer 1983 issue of TSLL, has been assimilated into this book-length study with such changes as I thought appropriate. Some greatly favorable responses to that original essay, described by several scholars as seminal and indispensable, encouraged me to undertake this longer study, which was occasioned by Ms. Ozick's extensive burst of creativity since 1983. In addition to the three novels and two volumes of essays she has published since then, her oeuvre includes more novellas, stories, interviews, letters, reviews, and essays, along with some personal correspondence between us in which she most graciously agreed to answer such questions as I might care to put into writing. Throughout this book, Ms. Ozick's willingness to conduct a long-term, written "interview" through this exchange of letters has made an important contribution, for which I am most grateful. Because serious scholarship has focused on Ozick for barely a decade— most of it in the last half decade—two primordial tasks of criticism remain in progress: to define the author's intellectual moorings, and—with them in view—to render an interpretive reading of her books. In its effort to perform those tasks, this book divides into three major sections. Chapter 1 is an account of the intellectual ambience of the writer as revealed in essays, interviews, letters, and a variety of incidental writings. Chapter 2 is an interpretive reading of the fiction (and some poetry) that attempts to analyze its interplay of themes, characters, and narrative devices. Chapter 3, entitled "Judgment," begins with an overall review of Ozick scholarship and ends with my personal evaluation of her achievement. The purpose of the whole enterprise can be simply stated: I shall consider the book a success if it substantially facilitates my reader's grasp of the artist's writings. Other books about Cynthia Ozick have been, will be, and should be written, giving differing interpretations and approaches to her work. Some Preface of those books have focused or will focus more meaningfully on the specifically Jewish character of her work than I, a Gentile, can aspire to do. Others will espouse the kind of postmodern theory in which I have taken little interest, subjecting her work to the psycholinguistic processes of deconstruction, for example, or putting primary emphasis on social abstractions that I have treated as secondary—class, race, gender, homophobia, late capitalism, imperialism (involving the Palestinian question), Marxism, the new historicism, and similar issues. Whatever approach other critics may choose, I hope we shall all hold in common a respect for clear, largely jargon-free language so as to make both our own work and Ms. Ozick's more intelligible to the sophisticated readers from all backgrounds whom, in my judgment, we should aim to serve. This book, in any case, was written out of that intention. My strong thanks go to Frank Lentricchia, whose professional encouragement was indispensable to the making of this book. And I am deeply grateful to Susan Tarcov for her superb editorial work on the manuscript. Author's Note For simplicity's sake, I shall refer to Cynthia Ozick's books within my main text in the following fashion: (TR) Trust. New York: New American Library, 1966. (PR) The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories. New York: Knopf, 1971. (BL) Bloodshed and Three Novellas. New York: Knopf, 1976. (LE) Levitation: Five Fictions. New York: Knopf, 1982. (AA) Art & Ardor. New York: Knopf, 1983. (CG) The Cannibal Galaxy. New York: Knopf, 1983. (MS) The Messiah of Stockholm. New York: Knopf, 1987. (MM) Metaphor & Memory. New York: Knopf, 1989. (SH) The Shawl ("The Shawl" and "Rosa"). New York: Knopf, 1990. For additional economy of style, I have identified Ms. Ozick's letters to me in my main text in this manner: (Ltr 4/15/87). I also refer in my main text to three frequently cited interviews by citing the name of the interviewer in this manner: (Kauvar 385) refers to page 385 of an interview conducted by Elaine M. Kauvar in Contemporary Literature 26, no. 4 (Winter 1985). (Scheick) refers to an interview conducted by William J. Scheick and Catherine Rainwater in Texas Studies in Literature and Language 25, no. 2 (Summer 1983). (Teicholz) refers to an interview conducted by Tim Teicholz in "The Art of Fiction" Series (XCV) of the Paris Review 29 (Spring 1987). XI 1 The Matrix of Art Despite her frequent invocation of D. H. Lawrence's warning, "Trust the tale, not the teller," Cynthia Ozick's own practice of criticism has made generous use of biography to analyze writings by two Eliots, T. S. and George, along with favorite writers such as Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, and Henry James. Her primary reason for disavowing the New Criticism was "its pretense that the poem was a finished, sealed unit, as if nothing outside the text could ever have mattered in the making of the poem" (AA 179); and what was most untenable about that pretense was precisely its disregard for the author: "The history, psychology, even the opinions, of a writer were declared irrelevant to the work and its word" (AA 163).
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