Tavizle Ulaşılan Uzlaşı: Bread Givers ve The Island Within Eserlerinde Habitusun Etnik Kimlik Üzerindeki Etkisi

1920lerin Yahudi karşıtlığı Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde yaşayan Yahudi Amerikalıların eşit vatandaşlar olarak statülerini etkilemiştir. Bu makale, artan Yahudi karşıtlığının oluşturduğu gerginlik döneminde basılan Anzia Yezierska’nın Bread Givers (1925/1999) ve Ludwig Lewisohn’un The Island Within (1928) eserlerinde Yahudi göçmenin etnik habitusundan Amerikanlaşmaya giden yolculuğunu incelemektedir. Yezierska ve Lewisohn, ana karakterlerin habituslarının birer Yahudi Amerikalı olarak kimliklerini nasıl biçimlendirdiğini göstermektedirler. Bourdieu’nün sosyolojik habitus kavramı bir bireyin kişiliği ve zevklerinin habitusunun yerleşmiş yapılarıyla ilişkili olarak biçimlendirildiğine ve bu habitusun bilinç dışı bir biçimde içselleştirildiğine işaret eder. Bread Givers eserinden Sara Smolinsky ile The Island Within eserinden Arthur Levy, asimile olamayacağı düşünülen Yahudilerin Amerikan değerlerine bir tehdit olarak algılandığı bir toplumda içselleştirilmiş Yahudiliklerini korumaya çalışmaktadırlar. Bu makale Pierre Bourdieu’nün habitus üzerine görüşlerinin yanısıra Jean Phinney’nin etnik kimlik oluşumu modelini ilk tartışma noktası olarak almakta ve Phinney’nin modelini bu eserlerdeki Yahudi karakterlerin kimlik oluşumunun son evresi hakkında tartışmak için geliştirmektedir. Phinney’nin savına göre etnik özne, etnik kimliği ve çoğunluğu oluşturan grubun kimliği arasında bir uzlaşmaya varır. Fakat bu makalede Sara ve Arthur’un etnik kimlik oluşumlarının son evresinde, habitusun deterministik tavrına karşı öznellikle hareket etmelerine ve kimliklerini geri kazanmalarına olanak sağlayan sekteye uğramış bir uzlaşmaya vardıkları öne sürülmektedir.

Conceded Reconciliation: The Impact of Habitus on Ethnic Identity Formation in Bread Givers and The Island Within

The anti-Semitism of the 1920s affected the status of Jewish Americans as equal citizens in the United States. This paper examines the Jewish immigrant’s journey from their ethnic habitus to Americanization in Anzia Yezierska’s Bread Givers (1925/1999) and Ludwig Lewisohn’s The Island Within (1928) that were published amidst the rising tensions of Anti-Semitism. Yezierska and Lewisohn demonstrate how the habitus of these two characters shape their identities as Jewish Americans. Bourdieu’s sociological concept of habitus indicates that the character and the tastes of an individual are shaped in relation to the set structures of his habitus, which is internalized unconsciously. Sara Smolinsky in Bread Givers and Arthur Levy in The Island Within try to preserve their internalized Jewishness in a society that thought the unassimilable Jew was a menace to American values. This paper uses Pierre Bourdieu’s discussion on the habitus as well as Jean Phinney’s model of ethnic identity formation as its initial discussion and develops Phinney’s model to elaborate on the final phase of the formation of Jewish characters in these works. According to Phinney’s argument, the ethnic subject achieves reconciliation between the ethnic identity and the identity of the majority group. However, this paper argues that the main characters of the two novels--Sara and Arthur, reach a conceded reconciliation in the final phase of their ethnic identity formation, which allows them to exercise subjectivity and reclaim their identity against the deterministic aspect of habitus.

___

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste (R. Nice, Trans.). Harvard UP. (Original work published 1979)
  • Bourdieu, P. (1995). Outline of a theory of practice (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge UP. (Original work published 1972)
  • Brodkin, K. (1998). How Jews became white folks: and what that says about race in America. Rutgers UP. Chametzky, J., Felstiner, J., Flanzbaum, H., Hellerstein, K. (Eds.). (2001). Jewish American literature: a Norton anthology. W. W. Norton& Company, Inc.
  • Chávez, A. F. & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1999). Racial and ethnic identity and development. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 84, 39-47.
  • Derrida, J. & Prenowitz, E. (1995). Archive fever: a Freudian impression. Diacritics, 25 (2), 9-63.
  • French, S. E., Seidman, E., Allen L., Aber, J. L. (2006). The development of ethnic identity during adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 42 (1), 1-10.
  • Goldstein, E. L. (2006). The price of whiteness: Jews, race, and American identity. Princeton UP.
  • Guzik, D. (2018). Genesis 49 – the blessing of the sons of Jacob. Retrieved from https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/genesis-49/, on December 16, 2022.
  • Howe, I. (1976). World of our fathers. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Hulsether, M. (2007). Religion, culture and politics in the twentieth-century United States. Columbia UP.
  • King, A. (2000). Thinking with Bourdieu against Bourdieu: a 'practical' critique of the habitus. Sociological Theory, 18 (3), 417-433.
  • Lewisohn, L. (1922). Up stream: an American chronicle. Boni and Liveright Publishers.
  • Lewisohn, L. (1928). The island within. Harper & Brothers.
  • New International Version (2011). Bible.com. Retrieved from https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.49.NIV, on March 1, 2023.
  • Nilsen, H. N. (1983). Jewish nationalism: a reading of Ludwig Lewisohn's the island within. American Studies Scandinavia, 15, 59-68.
  • Phinney, J. S. (1996). Understanding ethnic diversity: the role of ethnic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40 (2), 143-152.
  • Schuchalter, J. (2007). Modernism and modernity: the “case” of Mr. Lewisohn. Studies in American Jewish Literature, 26, 3-20.
  • Sol, A. (2001). Longings and renunciations: attitudes towards intermarriage in early twentieth century Jewish American novels. American Jewish History, 89 (2), 215-230.
  • Ortner, S. B. (1996). Making gender: the politics and erotics of culture. Beacon Press.
  • Wilentz, G. (1991-1992). Cultural mediation and the immigrant's daughter: Anzia Yezierska's bread givers. MELUS, 17 (3), 33-41.
  • Yezierska, A. (1999). Bread givers. Persea Books. (Original work published 1925)