Jewish Poetics in Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (1959).
Of all the novels in Saul Bellow's oeuvre , Henderson the Rain King (1959) seems to be the only one that is unrelated to Jewish life. Its plot revolves around an Anglo-Saxon millionaire, Eugene Henderson, who travels to Africa in search of answers to his existential crisis. This article shows that t...
| Publicado en: | Prooftexts Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 102 - 129 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Indiana University Press
2018
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=134190617&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 134190617 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 02729601 29G jtl: Prooftexts issn: 02729601 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2018 vid: 37 iid: 1 pid: 211 pub: Indiana University Press artinfo: ui: 134190617 10.2979/prooftexts.37.1.04 ppf: 102 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 416KB tig: atl: Jewish Poetics in Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King (1959). aug: au: Sutherland, Larissa affil: Monash University su: Bellow, Saul, 1915-2005 Henderson the Rain King (Book : Bellow) Holocaust, 1939-1945 Jewish American literature Jewish identity sug: subj: Bellow, Saul, 1915-2005 Henderson the Rain King (Book : Bellow) Holocaust, 1939-1945 Jewish American literature Jewish identity ab: Of all the novels in Saul Bellow's oeuvre , Henderson the Rain King (1959) seems to be the only one that is unrelated to Jewish life. Its plot revolves around an Anglo-Saxon millionaire, Eugene Henderson, who travels to Africa in search of answers to his existential crisis. This article shows that the novel is actually replete with Jewish themes and it positions the book alongside other postwar texts that disguised Jewish modes of expression within seemingly universal narratives. Henderson is framed in Yiddish and biblical rhetoric and reflects the ideas that Bellow developed in response to the Holocaust. It is also full of contradictions and ambiguities characteristic of this postwar genre; for instance, Henderson is exaggeratedly goyish at the same time he features many quintessential Jewish traits. By bringing attention to these aspects of the novel, this reading engages with critical and theoretical debates around how to demarcate the parameters that define Jewish American literature. It encourages the reader to reconsider those postwar texts that have been misinterpreted as diverging from Jewishness. And it directs them beyond the obvious hallmarks of Jewishness toward subtler cues that account for the ambivalences of postwar Jewish American identification. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Prooftexts is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Prooftexts holder: Indiana University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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