1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述）

issac bashevis singer is an american-jewish writer, considered as one of the greatest short-story writers in the 20^th century and also known as one of the only few jewish writers who win the nobel prize in literature. as a postwar jewish writer, singer’s writings embody diaspora, the common feature of jewish literature. in his writings, we can find the dilemma of assimilation, the pursuit of freedom and equality in american society, the identity exploration in double cultures and so on. his writtings reveal such a message that jewish people have indelible postwar trauma though they escape to america and have been living in the society for a long time. besides, his writings can be divided into two types. one is the stories of the pre-war jewish life, the other the experiences of american jewish people. accordingly, the jewish can be divided to two types, one group sticking to tradition and the other trying to break the routine. in short, singer is a great writer with the strong national missions and worry about his own national future and prospect.

up to now, critics make their studies on singer mainly from the five aspects: the relationship between singer’s nationality and traditional jewish literature, his moderation, his americanization and the sexual problems and duality in his writings(qiao guoqiang). in my view, these studied aspects are all concluded as diaspora which especially refers to the phenomenon that the jewish were forced to leave palestinian area and dispersed in places of the world. in the theory of diaspora, some scholars make an argument of jewish culture from its emergence to development and attempt to find an answer of the identity between double cultures. they put themselves in the framework of jewish culture to study singer’s creation and the meanings behind. irving howe thought singer’s creation was within the culture and compatible with jewish culture, which is because singer insists on making his writings in yiddish language. he uses yiddish, the language of the lost world, to describe the jewish world and make all of us hear his voice and know his people.

based on all above, the paper will make an analysis about the son from america and make the discussion about the son's identity. in the article, the son samuel represents american culture and those jewish people who have lived in american society for a long time, while berl and his wife berlcha represent those who still have observed traditional jewish lives. the striking contrast between the lifestyles of samuel and his parents is just the cause of his confusion about his identity and religious belief. he tries to rebuild his village and make the villagers live a modern and wonderful life. in the end, he fails to find anything he can do because his parents reject his ideas. through the subjective and objective elements, the paper will expound the question whether samuel is american or jewish, which simply conveys the dilemma of the jewish people living in america. the paper also hopes to arise contemporary people’s thinking about cultural identity, particularly under the context of globalization.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

This paper explores the identity of the son in The Son from America by Issac Bashevis Singer, that is, whether the son is American or Jewish. Firstly, the paper gives a brief introduction to the novel and the writer, including the main plots, social and history backgrounds, the life of the writer and his writing career. This part elaborates the relationship between Singer’s life experiences and his literary writtings and the impacts of the collision between American and Jewish cultures on his writings. Secondly, it discusses the problem of the son’s identity from the perspectives of the subjective and objective. The subjective aspects include psychological elements, mainly Samuel’s thoughts, and behavioral elements like accents. The objective aspects involve the village’s practices, Samuel’s physical appearance, etc. Finally, the paper makes a conclusion based on the studying.

The paper refers to the documents and materials from scholars’ studies and the suggestions and guidance of the mentor. Meanwhile, given that the paper is written in English, dictionaries of different functions are crucial to solve the problems of wording and phrasing. All of the tools are unnecessarily bought, so it is the good time to make full use of the college library and seek help from friends and other people.

3. 研究计划与安排

before 26th, december settlement of the title

before 25th, february submission of the outline

before 25th, april submission of the first draft

4. 参考文献（12篇以上）

[1]buchen i h. isaac bashevis singer and the eternal past[m]. new york university press, 1968.

[2]burgin, richard. conversation with isaac bashevis siner[m]. new york: doubleday, 1985.

[3]noiville, florence. isaac b. singer, a life[m].new york: farrar, straus and giroux, 2006.