T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

1) TO exploit the Jewish background by concentrating oncatching the troken accents and mores of the Jewish immigrantIn America. 2) To ignore the Jewish background completely andwork within an individualized or abstracted framework. 3) Toutilize the Jeuish-American background as a fictional framew~thout adoptlng the stances of the local colourist. Malamudchose the third alternative because it attempted to fuse theworld of Yldcdish folklore with Zewish life in America. Anentire generation of Jewish-Amerlcan wrlters has managed in thespace of about twenty-five years to create for themselves acentral place In American literature. The Jewlsh-Americanauthor has suddenly emerged at a time when he has few problemsto bother about.Racral amrcy is no longer the myth which many Jewishwrlters yearEed for in the past-"having won his long strugglefor a place in society, the Jew is as free as any man to writeas an Amerlcan and not as a minorlty figure". (Richman1967.20) The theme of his writings and the trappings of hisformer clienation have pushed the Jewish writer into prominenceat a time when he has seemingly disappeared as a separateentity. 'Alienation1 was the single most important ingredientIn denying the Jew an essential voice In hls adapted Country.Faced wlth the possibility of an end to the torments ofalienation which America presented, the Jewish writer has in