Jews’ Homeland Imagination and Construction of National Identity in The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Abstract

Abstract: Homeland not only provides Jews with spiritual shield and guidance, but also embodies their reflection on life and their construction of identity. In The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon explores Jews’ imagination of homeland by focusing on their choices of homeland during different historical periods and reflecting on their struggle with the construction of Jewish identity. To Chabon, neither Americanization nor Israelization of Jewish identity is good enough. Instead, he advocates the “rushing out” option in building their homeland and encourages Jews to pursue independence and freedom first before embarking on an earnest effort to construct a new Jewish identity based on their spiritual essence. Chabon’s approach to create the national identity offers the contemporary Jewish people a new idea in constructing self-identity and Jewishness and underlies his concern over Jews’ existence and fate in the post-Holocaust era.

Key words: Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, homeland imagination, national identity construction

Gao Limin. Jews’ Homeland Imagination and Construction of National Identity in The Yiddish Policemen’s Union[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2019, 41(5): 157-165.

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