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Assimilated Aliens: The Rise of David Levinsky and Portnoy's Complaint
Ambrožová, Alžběta ; Ulmanová, Hana (advisor) ; Pilný, Ondřej (referee)
How to be an alien in America? The answer, according to a sociologist, lies in the process of assimilation. By Park and Burgess, it is defined as "A process of interpenetration and fusion in which persons and groups acquire the memories, sentiments and attitudes of other persons or groups, and, by sharing their experience and history, are incorporated with them in a common cultural life" Assimilation takes place as a natural reaction to the encounter of different cultures and as such inevitably becomes a major issue in the 20th century America hosting huge waves of immigrants from all over the world, coming to the New World full of high hopes for new beginnings. Wandering for centuries as outcasts, Jews constitute an intriguing subgroup. Not only are some Jewish newcomers alien in their language, Yiddish peeking through their leaky English, they also do not conform in terms of their Judaic religion. Their cultural heritage clashes with the host culture of American WASPs and such a collision does not leave their Jewishness intact. The stories of immigrants are therefore essentially narratives of transformation. A key term in this discussion is one coined by Homi K. Bhabha, who, in his study on post- colonialism, claims the colonial subject, exposed to the dominant oppressor culture, acquires a "Double...
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