「猶太人」存在嗎？這個身分是他們自己的認同，或是被所謂「非猶太人」所創造出的。這個流散的「民族」在歐洲早期多半因為宗教原因受到迫害，但是於十九世紀末二十世紀初，由於民族國家的興起，加上「以科學之名」的種種論述，對「猶太人」的恨也開始「現代化」，一連串的反猶運動如火如荼展開，間接促成了二十世紀的大屠殺。 普魯斯特的《追憶似水年華》這部巨幅的作品刻畫了十九世紀末二十世紀初的法國上流社會。這部七大冊集結而成的作品中，「猶太元素」反復不斷出現。十九世紀末的法國發生了轟動一時的「德雷福斯事件」。德雷福斯軍官因其猶太出身，受到許多不實的指控。在普魯斯特的作品中，使用了大量的篇幅來描述這件冤獄案。這件案子發生的當時，他熱切地參與關心，希望德雷福斯軍官得以平反。普魯斯特對這事件的關注，加上其母親為猶太人的事實，讓人不禁好奇，普魯斯特如何描述猶太人，而當時的猶太人又是如何被論述。 普魯斯特書中的猶太角色並不多，但是對這幾個角色的深刻描述足以讓我們看到當時社會是如何去界定一個「猶太人」。「身分」是多重的，在社會裡每一個人絶對不只有單一「身分」。但是這個「身分」是由自己所發出的認同，亦或是由別人所「想像的」？透過敘述的方式得以建立一種特定「身分」，這可能就是問題的癥結所在。 Does “Jew” exist? As we know the identity is a creation by others. What constitute the “Jewishness”? For Sartre, “the Jew is the man whom other men take to be a Jew.” It seems that the Jewish identity is nothing more than an imagination by those who are anti-Semite. The persecutions of the Jewish people in the 20th century are still unknown to us. The reasons for their being persecuted differ from those in the ancient times, i.e. religious causes. As the discourses of nationalism and scientism change, the discourses of anti-Semite are also changed. In Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, the Jewish elements appear constantly. In the time of Proust, the famous Dreyfus Affair occurred. Given the fact that Proust is a half-Jew, it is very interesting to see how the narrator described the Jews in the novel. Are the representations of the narrator different from the official discourses? Through the text, we can observe and analyze how did the Jewish identity be represented. Because all kinds of narrations could be considered as an affirmation of identity.
