Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Shofar; an Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
18,3 (2000) 27-48
Keywords:
Cohen, Albert,
;
Self-hate (Psychology)
;
Jews Identity
Abstract:
The works of the French Jewish writer Albert Cohen (1895-1981) strike the reader with double ambiguity - towards Jews and women. Despite his ostensibly philosemitic and pro-feminine stance, Cohen's works exhibit both antisemitic and misogynistic discourses inscribed with a positive authorial evaluation. Turning to Cohen's two major novels, "Solal" and "Belle du seigneur, " as well as to his two autobiographical texts, "La livre de ma mere" and "O vous, freres humains, " and situating his works in the analytical framework of Melanie Klein's theories of mourning and artistic reparation and Sander Gilman's theorization of Jewish self-hatred, examines Cohen's unresolved personal and cultural conflicts underlying his fiction. Argues that his novels succumb to the destructive forces of the maternal/cultural schism, while his autobiographical texts transcend his ambivalence toward Jewish identity (and women) through textual acts of reparation.
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