Sense of Place and the Idea of Promised Land in the American Jewish Consciousness: A Study of Saul Bellow’s Novels

Abstract

The Greek word diaspora that means ‘dispersion’ was originally used to refer to the Jews living in exile after Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. Then onwards, it referred to all the Jews who lived outside Palestine, the present day Israel. Now, the word has acquired extended meaning and refers to all people who live outside their nation.

Place has a special meaning to people all over the world. The place may be one’s room, home, native town, ancestral village, holiday resort or nation. The place, with its space and environment, connects with people.

The human relationships, smell, colours, weather, food, festivals and many other pleasures a place offers, bind with human experience and get embedded in individual and collective memory, emotionally and spiritually. When one misses all the familiar elements of one’s place by circumstance or compulsion, the pain and suffering become lingering ones.