On the Money: Existentialism and Imperial Semiotics in A. M. Klein’s The Second Scroll

The author points out that a great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to Montreal novelist and poet A. M. Klein's (1909-1972) The Second Scroll (1951) for its representation of Jewish identity. The narrator of the novel, however, recognizes that, as the descendant of immigrants, he is "a Canadian Jew marginalized from the Holocaust and the foundation of Israel." In this sense, the author argues, the narrator of The Second Scroll experiences a double marginalization resulting in a more complex representation of identity than the novel is usually afforded. The author explains that few critics acknowledge the novel's indebtedness to the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Buber. He shows that a close reading of Klein's use of British imperial symbols in concert with the foundational texts of existentialism and the work of Louis Althusser disrupts the dominant school of thought regarding The Second Scroll. The author concludes that novel certainly celebrates Judaism, but it is not meant to represent the consolidation of a Jewish identity or ideology; rather, it is a parable for Canadians. As a result of the interpellation or “hail” of ideology, the narrator and his search for his mercurial Uncle Melech is prompted to assert a distinctly Canadian identity.

Studies in American Jewish Literature

Vol. 35

no. 2

165-177

2016

en