塑造“新人”:现代犹太民族构建的身体史

Cultivating the“New Man”:The Body-building and Nation-building of Modern Jewish People

在19世纪末的欧洲思想界,犹太人通常被描绘为阴柔、虚弱、胆怯的女性化形象。对此,犹太民族主义者提出了“新型犹太人”构想,力图在民族复兴进程中革新犹太身体形象:一方面,通过转向健身运动、农业垦殖和军事斗争来恢复犹太人的劳动本能和男性气概;另一方面,在象征层面将希伯来文化作为民族之根,把流散犹太人与巴勒斯坦阿拉伯人构建为女性化的“他者”加以排斥。到20世纪三四十年代,阳刚、健壮、勇敢、土生土长的“萨布拉”成为理想的民族身体意象。“新人”塑造与民族国家构建交织在一起,成为犹太民族复兴运动的重要支撑。犹太“新人”不仅重塑了犹太身体形象,而且深刻影响了当代以色列的国民性格与精神气质,成为身体转型与政治转型互动的重要案例。

In the late 19th century,bodies of Jewish people were always depicted by European thinkers as feminine,frail and timid female images.As for that,Jewish nationalists proposed a conception of“New Jew”,intending to change their body image during the process of national rejuvenation.As a result,Jews tried to restore their labor capacity and manliness by body-building exercises,agricultural reclamation,and military struggle,and in addition they,viewing Hebrew culture as national base symbolically,excluded Diaspora Jews and Arabs of Palestine as feminine“others”.In 1930s and 1940s,Sabra,a native that was masculine,strong and courageous,became an ideal national body image.“New Man”cultivation,coupled with the process of nation-building,played a supportive role in Jewish rejuvenation movement.In effect,the“New Jew”not only reshaped the national body image but exerted a great infl uence on national character and spirit of contemporary Israel,making it an important case about the interplay between body transformation and political transformation.