Whiteness and Democracy in Philip Roth's I Married a Communist

Abstract

Philip Roth is one of the most well-known and prolific writers in contemporary America, and I Married A Communist is the masterpiece of his reflections on American society at large. Set against McCarthyism in the 1950s, I Married A Communist displays Roth's contemplation of the relationships among Communism, whiteness and American democracy, and especially that between the latter two. Whiteness, based on racial differentiation and exclusion, exposes the inherent contradiction of American democracy. On the one hand, American democracy strives for equality, liberty and individual rights for all its citizens, but on the other hand, whiteness reveals various inequalities and injustices. To some extent, whiteness is complicit with American democracy, and Communism makes that complicity explicit.