"A Jew without Jewishness": Muted Voices Unbound in Philip Roth's The Counterlife

Abstract

ABSTRACT:In The Counterlife (1986), Philip Roth turns to postmodern innovation via an intricate web of counternarratives in order to examine the complexity of contemporary Jewishness, alongside its fluid relationship with space, memory, and public and private identity. This essay focuses on the truths residing on the fringes of The Counterlife, dwelling on the liminal spaces created by seemingly unimportant lines and episodes. The analysis is meant to prove that such liminal remarks or actions illustrate the depths of inborn and constructed bias concerning otherness and difference (preponderantly racial), significantly feeding the book's major acknowledged arguments. This essay argues that, in the context of the perpetual Jewish struggle for self-definition and self-understanding across geographical and ideological borders, Roth aims to deconstruct stereotypical representations and to challenge established versions of history by showcasing various overlooked and/or marginal(ized) positions and dilemmas.