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

这个研究项目有助于写作，'写犹太人：当代英国犹太文学（1990年-现在的《》，一本7万字的专著，与帕尔格雷夫签订了合同（将于5月前提交，2012年）该项目通过探索当代犹太人和英国人身份之间的关系，为文学研究中的一个发展领域带来了一个新的视角，以前被处理过。正如安德鲁·莫辛最近在授予霍华德·雅各布森布克奖时所明确表示的那样，这些都是日益增加的文化和社会相关性的问题。 在小说、回忆录和新闻报道中，作家们正在解决越来越具有挑战性的问题，即在21世纪既是英国人又是犹太人意味着什么。琳达格兰特最近形容自己是“一个类别错误”（2006年，第5页），这种具有讽刺意味的自我介绍是一个反复出现的主题，在最近的英国犹太回忆录和小说。脱节的主题贯穿其中许多文本。正如霍华德·雅各布森在《根·舒茨》中所说的那样，他回忆起自己在20世纪50年代曼彻斯特长大时的童年身份分裂感，“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，以及对不完全属于的意识，也产生了自我反思探究的生产精神。在整个项目中，我想质疑这种对模糊性和紧张局势的强调，并提出以下问题：-在什么样的方式是理论化的犹太性作为范式的不稳定性内的变化和不稳定的条件下，后现代性的挑战，一个精确的重点放在特殊性的英国犹太性在当代写作？- 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？- 在多大程度上有必要将这部作品置于比较框架内，以探讨它与当代英国文学的其他方面如何交叉？- 对英国犹太人的代表性的关注是否特别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，以发展一个持续的论点，在当代写作中的英国犹太背景的特殊性。它将参与当前的关键辩论，并强调研究的当代性质，包括在写这本书的两年内出版的关键英国犹太文本的阅读。这项研究提出了一个新的视角，将有助于文学批评这一领域的发展，并在当代英国文化中的宗教，种族和身份更广泛的问题的辩论干预。

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.