The question of Jewish identity in Sodome et Gomorrhe of Marcel Proust

• Main Authors: Chien-Yi Liao, 廖健苡
• Other Authors: Shu-Ling Tsai
• Format: Others
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/87330909443461536836

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 法國語文學系碩士班 === 94 === Does “Jew” exist? As we know the identity is a creation by others. What constitute the “Jewishness”? For Sartre, “the Jew is the man whom other men take to be a Jew.” It seems that the Jewish identity is nothing more than an imagination by those who are anti-Semite. The persecutions of the Jewish people in the 20th century are still unknown to us. The reasons for their being persecuted differ from those in the ancient times, i.e. religious causes. As the discourses of nationalism and scientism change, the discourses of anti-Semite are also changed. In Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, the Jewish elements appear constantly. In the time of Proust, the famous Dreyfus Affair occurred. Given the fact that Proust is a half-Jew, it is very interesting to see how the narrator described the Jews in the novel. Are the representations of the narrator different from the official discourses? Through the text, we can observe and analyze how did the Jewish identity be represented. Because all kinds of narrations could be considered as an affirmation of identity.