Singer’s Demons
Alexandra Herzog (Boston University): “Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Demons:
A Carnivalesque Journey”
Dr. Alexandra Herzog opened her BU Jewish Studies Forum talk on Isaac Bashevis Singer by asking, “Do we need demons in life?” Her close analysis of several Singer stories has led her to suggest that he understood the supernatural as a naturally occurring force in his own inner life. He believed that demons are a necessity, a vehicle for rebellion, protest, and questioning conventional notions of truth. Herzog’s talk prompted her assembled colleagues and students to further discuss various concepts of madness and the universal capacity to harbor demonic impulses.
A scholar of American Jewish literature and Gender Studies, Dr. Herzog noted that the Talmud says that madness must be experienced in moderation, as life is “sometimes sane, sometimes, insane.” Singer believed that madness is inescapable because “the world of matter and deeds is an insane asylum.” This perspective explains his frequent mockery of “order” in stories about reversed societal and gender roles, in which women’s bodies become battlegrounds for demonic possession, and stories in which mental illness offers an escape from social reality. Singer’s ending for these tales is always the same, Dr. Herzog noted: “carnivalesque” laughter and the horror of demons force order to unravel and signal the character’s descent into madness.
For more information on Dr. Herzog, see https://www.bu.edu/jewishstudies/people/post-doctoral-fellows/.