Humor and Intellectual Identity Construction in Cynthia Ozick’s Short Fiction

Abstract

Cynthia Ozick, with her keen insight and sharp wit, has created many impressive images of intellectuals. Through the analysis of linguistic humor and situational humor in Ozick’s humorous characterization of Jewish intellectuals; as well as the exploration of Ozick’s playful manipulation of embedded narrative structure in her fiction, this thesis argues that Ozick, with her employment of humor in both story and narrative layer, reconsiders and criticizes some fundamental weakness and characteristic flaws of Jewish intellectuals in their various cultural interaction. While, at the same time, her criticism humor carries her effort on the preservation of Jewish identity and embodies her understanding and sympathy of the intellectual in their cultural dilemmas.