"Momma, Do We Believe in Winter?": Yiddishe Mama and Judaism in Portnoy's Complaint

Q2 Arts and Humanities Philip Roth Studies Pub Date : 2022-04-19 DOI:10.1353/prs.2022.0006
Olga B. Karasik-Updike
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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract:In Portnoy's Complaint (1969), Philip Roth created a particularly vivid image of a Jewish mother. Now, more than fifty years after the novel was published, it is hard to define whether this novel produced the Jewish mother jokes or whether the jokes produced the novel. Sophie Portnoy is the embodiment of Jewishness as well as Judaism in the novel. "Hundreds of thousands of little rules" of the Portnoys' household go back to the laws of Judaism but are interpreted and presented by the mother in an odd and distorted way. Jewish philosophy is lowered to the everyday taboos that regulate Alex Portnoy's life even when he becomes an adult and lives separately from his parents. The belief in these taboos subsumes Judaism and its real laws, becoming the only Judaism Alex knows.
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“妈妈,我们相信冬天吗?”《波特诺伊的抱怨》中的意第绪语妈妈和犹太教
摘要:菲利普·罗斯在《波特诺伊的控诉》(1969)中塑造了一个犹太母亲形象。现在,在这部小说出版50多年后,很难确定这部小说是否产生了犹太母亲的笑话,或者这些笑话是否产生了这部小说。索菲·波特诺伊在小说中既是犹太的化身,也是犹太教的化身。波特诺家的“数十万条小规则”可以追溯到犹太教的法律,但母亲以一种奇怪和扭曲的方式解释和呈现。即使亚历克斯·波特诺伊成年后与父母分开生活,犹太哲学也被降为日常禁忌,这些禁忌规范着他的生活。对这些禁忌的信仰包含了犹太教及其真正的法律,成为亚历克斯唯一知道的犹太教。
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来源期刊
Philip Roth Studies
Philip Roth Studies Arts and Humanities-Literature and Literary Theory
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0.80
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