Writing Jewish: Contemporary British-Jewish Literature (1990-the present)

该研究项目有助于撰写“写作犹太人：当代英国犹太文学（1990年至今）”，这是一部与Palgrave签订合同的7万字专著（将于2012年5月提交）。该项目通过探索当代犹太人和英国身份之间的关系，在文学研究的发展领域带来了一个新的视角，这是以前没有解决的方式。正如Andrew Motion最近在授予Howard Jacobson布克奖时明确指出的那样，这些都是与文化和社会日益相关的问题。在小说、回忆录和新闻报道中，作家们正在探讨越来越具有挑战性的问题：在21世纪，身为英国人和犹太人意味着什么？琳达·格兰特最近把自己描述为“一个类别错误”（2006年，第5页）。这种讽刺的自我表现是最近英国犹太人回忆录和小说中反复出现的主题。脱节的主题贯穿了许多这些文本。正如霍华德·雅各布森在《根的谈话》（Roots Schmoots）中所说的那样，他在20世纪50年代的曼彻斯特长大，回忆起自己童年时的身份分裂感，“我们面对着相反的方向，我们是我们自己的对立面”（1993年，第3页）。有时这种错位感表现为对整体的渴望。但是，与“类别错误”相关的不确定性，以及对不完全归属的意识，也产生了一种自我反思的探究精神。在整个项目中，我想质疑这种对模糊性和张力的强调，并提出以下问题：在后现代性不断变化和不稳定的条件下，作为不稳定范例的犹太性的理论化在哪些方面受到了当代写作中对英国犹太性特殊性的精确关注的挑战？英国犹太作家以何种方式质疑、拥抱或抵制当今英国文化中存在的多样化和分散的身份认同形式？-为了探索它与当代英国文学的其他方面的交集，在多大程度上有必要将这篇文章置于一个比较的框架中？-对英国犹太人代表性的关注是否揭示了当代英国文化中更广泛的关注或焦虑？我在这一领域的研究扩展了该领域现有的工作，以发展一个关于当代写作中英国犹太人背景的特殊性的持续论点。它将参与当前的批判性辩论，同时，强调研究的当代性质，纳入在撰写本书的两年内出版的关键英国犹太人文本的阅读。这项研究提出了一个新的视角，将有助于这一文学批评领域的发展，并介入当代英国文化中有关宗教、种族和身份等更广泛问题的辩论。

This research project contributes to the writing of, 'Writing Jewish: Contemporary British-Jewish Literature (1990-the present)', a 70,000 word monograph which is under contract with Palgrave (to be submitted by May, 2012).The project brings a new perspective to a developing area within literary studies by exploring the relationship between contemporary Jewish and British identities in ways which have not previously been addressed. These are, as Andrew Motion recently made clear in awarding Howard Jacobson the Man Booker prize, issues of increasing cultural and social relevance. In fiction, memoirs and journalism, writers are addressing increasingly challenging questions about what it means to be both British and Jewish in the twenty-first century. Linda Grant has recently described herself as 'a category error' (2006, p.5) This ironic self-presentation is a recurring theme in recent British-Jewish memoirs and novels. Themes of disconnection run through many of these texts. As Howard Jacobson put it in 'Roots Schmoots', recalling his own childhood sense of split identity whilst growing up in 1950s Manchester, 'we faced in opposite directions, we were our own antithesis'(1993, p.3). Sometimes this sense of dislocation is expressed as a yearning for wholeness. But, the uncertainties associated with being a 'category error', and the awareness of not quite belonging, also generate a productive spirit of self-reflexive enquiry. Throughout this project, I want to question this emphasis on ambiguity and tension to ask the following questions: -In what ways is the theorisation of Jewishness as paradigmatic of instability within the shifting and unstable conditions of postmodernity challenged by a precise focus on the particularity of British Jewishness within contemporary writing? -In what ways are British-Jewish writers interrogating, embracing or resisting the diverse and diffuse forms of identification present within British culture today? -To what extent is it necessary to place this writing within a comparative framework in order to explore how it intersects with other aspects of contemporary British literature? -Does a focus on the representation of British-Jewishness in particular reveal any wider preoccupations or anxieties within contemporary British culture?My research in this area extends the existing work in the field to develop a sustained argument about the particularity of the British-Jewish context within contemporary writing. It will engage with current critical debates and also, emphasising the contemporary nature of the study, incorporate readings of key British-Jewish texts published within the two year period of writing the book. This research presents a new perspective that will contribute to the development of this field of literary criticism and intervene in debates about wider issues of religion, ethnicity and identity within contemporary British culture.