Browsing by Author "Canpolat, Fatih"

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Ethnic Sensibility in Bernard Malamud's Works
(2004) Canpolat, Fatih; Boynukara, Hasan
The term ethnicity and ethnic sensitivity are being more frequently used than it used to be. Today because of international mobility due to economic problems, political preassures and social unrsests we have less and and less heteregenous societies. Instead, the societies are becoming multi-racial and multi-cultural. This means,in its simplest sense, people of different backgrounds are to live together. It is natural experiencing integration problems and particularly problems ascribed ethnic which have been experienced more painfully largely because of lack of mutual understanding among the groups. When individually confronted, it may lead to problems other than ethnic related ones such as alienation. Especially in America, in the first half of the 20* century, where population is very divergent in terms of ethnicity, these were faced intensely. Being aware of such a straggle will naturally help tolerating the other. The aim of this study is to try to shed light and create better understanding concerning ethnic related issues as depicted in Bernard Malamud's works, particularly in his novels titled The Assistant and the Tenants as well as in his short stories Bernard Malamud and his works that accommodate immigrant Jews, who have lived through all possible human experiences in their nearly two thousand year history as an ethnic group living m. host countries, are worth studying in many respects. He deals with the ethnic problems both in the lives of individuals and that of society. Immigrant Jews after arriving America have enjoyed a good many aspects of freedom in social and religious life when compared to their former lives in Eastern Europe. However, this relative freedom and still being an ethnic minority in modern America have led many of the immigrant Jews - if not all-, and their descendants to have a feeling of alienation both to their own values and to that of the host society. In addition, the inevitable process of adaptation, acculturation and assimilation and rejection in both sides caused them to question their ethnicity and the world around, and compelled them to choose in between. Thus, identity problems and the dilemma between modem and ethnic life became the attributes of Jews in America, which are also very similar to the problems of modern man in general.82 Malamud and his Jewish characters set a good example of ethnic sensibility in that they sense the world around through the light of their ethnic background. However, as a consequence of Malamud's view of Jew as a universal man and his existentialist view of life they are also good examples of modern men, in the broadest sense of the word, struggling to realize themselves. In the study we aimed at analyzing the reflections of ethnic sensibility, the way it is presented, the respones and counter-responses to such presentations and representations, the attitudes taken, the efforts towards merging the borders and bridging the gaps between the main culture and sub-cultures and the like. Our purpose was/is to contribute in any way possible to building an understanding between all sorts of groups, be they ethnic, political or social rather than offering clear cut solutions or prescriptions.