This article critically examines the problem of meaning in Saul Bellow’s writings by tracing how the writer’s strategies of subversion and deconstruction, along with his unique perspective on madness, life, and the world, shape his fictional narratives. This study further explores how theoretical reflections on morality and humanism reveal their limits when analyzed within their historical, political, social, economic, and intellectual contexts. The primary aim was to overemphasize how Bellow has attempted to make sense and unity out of difference and contradiction. Drawing on critical theories from Derrida, Habermas, Hegel, and other contemporary thinkers, this article reassesses Bellow’s strategies of subversion and deconstruction, arguing that personal and ideological imperatives deeply influence his fictional world. Moreover, this study interrogates the extent to which Bellow’s engagement with philosophy and criticism reflects a broader crisis of meaning. The findings highlight Bellow’s selective appropriation of literary and philosophical traditions, questioning the limitations of his engagement with poststructuralist and feminist thought, as his narratives oscillate between radical subversion and entrenched ideological stances. This study contends that Bellow’s fiction represents an unfinished intellectual project—one that simultaneously critiques and perpetuates the contradictions of modernity.
Rimah Saleh Alyahya (Fri,) studied this question.