The enduring, mythical and antisemitic figure of Ahasuerus is central to the unraveling and reframing of post-Shoah Jewish identity in Rabinovici’s novel Suche nach M for it serves as the mythological color palette from which Rabinovici draws his characters and, to extend that metaphor, how the Jews have been immortalized in European culture. There is no escape in Suche nach M. When painting the Jew, both Jews and non-Jews can only use brush strokes of color from the Christian-created palette of the mythic, wandering Jew, Ahasuerus, who is stained in the blood of deicide, emasculated, treacherous, and evil. He is the constitutional “Other.”
By deploying Urie Bronfenbrenner’s (Bio) Ecological Systems Theory, the Mythic Jew and the Ikhud (“Fusion”) Models that represent an evolving psychosocial environment combined with personal reflection, this thesis explores how Suche nach M invokes yet critiques the process of Jewish male identity formation in postwar Austria. / Graduate
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/4268 |
Date | 11 September 2012 |
Creators | Gans, Michael Moses |
Contributors | Schallié, Charlotte |
Source Sets | University of Victoria |
Language | English, English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis |
Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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