从小说《拉维尔斯坦》看贝娄犹太性的转变

The Shift of Saul Bellow' s Jewishness in Ravelstein

贝娄的最后一部长篇小说《拉维尔斯坦》是他根据同事、好友艾伦.布鲁姆的生平写成的一部传记性小说。小说出版后,在美国批评界引起了很大的反响。称赞者认为该小说的出版是"一个惊人的成就,贝娄数年来写的最富有吸引力的一部作品;"质疑者则认为贝娄"暴露"了布鲁姆的隐私,把布鲁姆搞"同性恋"的事情给泄露了。这牵扯到道德问题,即贝娄无权"将其好友布鲁姆的个人隐私公布于众"。然而,纵观已有的评论,其关注的重点无非是围绕着暴露隐私和有关死亡、友谊、爱情等问题,将一部讨论犹太大屠杀和反犹主义这一重大问题的小说用私人化的方式给消解了。应该说,贝娄在八十四岁高龄创作的这最后一部长篇小说绝不仅仅是单纯地为好友作传,畅谈友谊、爱情和死亡,而且更是对自己的民族文化立场和价值取向的最终定位。从分析小说对大屠杀和反犹主义的表述,我们可以看出作者贝娄的犹太民族立场,即他的犹太性。

Saul Bellow＇ s last novel Ravelstein is kind of biographical novel written on the basis of the life of his colleague and friend Allan Broom.Its publication evoked a great repercussion among the American critics.Those who praised it claimed that it ＂was a startling achievement,the most compelling book Bellow had written in years＂,while those who denied it were annoyed that Bellow had revealed Broom＇ s privacy and ＂outed＂ Broom＇ s homosexuality.For them,it was a moral issue,namely,Bellow has no right ＂to make such matters public.＂ Taking all the criticism into account,the major critical concerns so far are on the ＂outed＂ privacy and issues concerning death,friendship and love,deconstructing the theme of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust in discussing private matters.It is to say that Bellow,who wrote the novel at the age of 84,would write his last novel Ravelstein for his friend,to discuss friendship,death and love only;he must have thought to fix his ethnic position and value orientation through this novel too.The present author attempts to argue about Bellow＇ s Jewish position,namely his Jewishness through analyzing the contents and expressions of the novel concerning such issues as anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.