ABSTRACT:The personal relationship between Primo Levi and Philip Roth, two of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century, has been studied in depth, but scholars have devoted less attention to the recurring presence of Levi in Roth’s books. Following an overview of the interaction between the two writers, this article closely examines Roth’s understanding of Levi’s works and highlights the different ways in which the memory of the Italian writer emerges in Roth’s fiction and nonfiction. A close reading of Roth’s literary engagement with Levi shows that after the Italian writer’s suicide in 1987, Levi’s figure becomes a recurring presence in Roth’s oeuvre, particularly in its reflections on the responsibilities of a writer.
{"title":"“This Speaks Volumes About How Deeply I Know the Human Soul”: Philip Roth and Primo Levi","authors":"Francesco Samarini","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0014","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The personal relationship between Primo Levi and Philip Roth, two of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century, has been studied in depth, but scholars have devoted less attention to the recurring presence of Levi in Roth’s books. Following an overview of the interaction between the two writers, this article closely examines Roth’s understanding of Levi’s works and highlights the different ways in which the memory of the Italian writer emerges in Roth’s fiction and nonfiction. A close reading of Roth’s literary engagement with Levi shows that after the Italian writer’s suicide in 1987, Levi’s figure becomes a recurring presence in Roth’s oeuvre, particularly in its reflections on the responsibilities of a writer.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"44 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41422101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT:This essay explores the significance of polio in Roth’s Nemesis (2010), arguing that an understanding of the nature of the disease, on the one hand, and its use as a metaphor for the Holocaust and Holocaust memory on the other hand, sheds fresh light on Roth’s achievement. Approaching Nemesis by foregrounding polio and Holocaust memory serves to rehabilitate the novel’s protagonist, Bucky Cantor, who, in contrast to the novel’s narrator, Arnie Mesnikoff, has received considerable criticism for his failure to live a productive life after contracting the disease. Viewed through the lenses of polio, the Holocaust, and traumatic memory, both Bucky as a character and the novel itself can be read in a more positive light that serves to reconcile the divergent positions occupied by narrator and protagonist. By considering the ways that the novel represents Bucky’s reaction to the traumatic effects of polio as a disease, we can better understand the ways trauma informs other traumatic legacies such as anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
{"title":"“Lashed to the Mast of That Recollection”: Philip Roth’s Nemesis, Polio, and Post-Traumatic Memory","authors":"M. Jardine","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0013","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This essay explores the significance of polio in Roth’s Nemesis (2010), arguing that an understanding of the nature of the disease, on the one hand, and its use as a metaphor for the Holocaust and Holocaust memory on the other hand, sheds fresh light on Roth’s achievement. Approaching Nemesis by foregrounding polio and Holocaust memory serves to rehabilitate the novel’s protagonist, Bucky Cantor, who, in contrast to the novel’s narrator, Arnie Mesnikoff, has received considerable criticism for his failure to live a productive life after contracting the disease. Viewed through the lenses of polio, the Holocaust, and traumatic memory, both Bucky as a character and the novel itself can be read in a more positive light that serves to reconcile the divergent positions occupied by narrator and protagonist. By considering the ways that the novel represents Bucky’s reaction to the traumatic effects of polio as a disease, we can better understand the ways trauma informs other traumatic legacies such as anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"26 - 43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48534954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT:Philip Roth’s 2004 alternative history novel, The Plot Against America, was his best-selling work in decades, firmly reestablishing his prominence among a general readership. The novel’s popularity was due at least in part to its deliberately accessible prose style and exciting, cliffhanger-rich plot. Seizing upon this accessibility, this article examines the style of The Plot Against America as a literary version of film noir, the influential cycle of downbeat American crime films spanning roughly 1941–1958. To read the novel through this cinematic lens is to highlight certain pulp and Surrealist aspects not typically associated with Roth’s fiction. Testing filmic understandings of noir themes and strategies against the novel’s genre experiment, this article ultimately demonstrates how these conventions (including the femme fatale, narrative dislocation, and racial displacement) endure as vital expressions of American Modernism.
{"title":"Through the Dark Mirror: Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America as Noir Fantasia","authors":"Ryan Sherwood","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0012","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Philip Roth’s 2004 alternative history novel, The Plot Against America, was his best-selling work in decades, firmly reestablishing his prominence among a general readership. The novel’s popularity was due at least in part to its deliberately accessible prose style and exciting, cliffhanger-rich plot. Seizing upon this accessibility, this article examines the style of The Plot Against America as a literary version of film noir, the influential cycle of downbeat American crime films spanning roughly 1941–1958. To read the novel through this cinematic lens is to highlight certain pulp and Surrealist aspects not typically associated with Roth’s fiction. Testing filmic understandings of noir themes and strategies against the novel’s genre experiment, this article ultimately demonstrates how these conventions (including the femme fatale, narrative dislocation, and racial displacement) endure as vital expressions of American Modernism.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"25 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42341734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Berlinerblau, B. Michael, Heather Walters, Stanislav Pejsa
ABSTRACT:Many scholars have contemplated the literary influences that shaped the fictional creation of Philip Roth. The endeavor to identify such influences is a complex task that may be approached in a variety of ways. As one way — but certainly not the only way — of engaging the problem, this contribution presents a quantitative tool entitled “Intertexts and Influence: A Comprehensive Table of Intertexts in Philip Roth’s Fiction, 1952–2010.” Using Roth’s 53 novels, novellas, and short stories as a database, the table measures every literary 1) author, 2) title of work, 3) character, and 4) passage/verse invoked in his oeuvre. The findings are geared toward identifying which figures Roth cited most frequently and in which of his own works he intensified his rate of intertextual invocation. At the very least, this research tool will help scholars quickly identify when and where Roth cited other writers. At best, it will facilitate the inquiries of those studying Rothian intertextuality — a quality of his fiction that must be recognized as a defining component of his aesthetic.
{"title":"Intertexts and Influence: A Comprehensive Table of Intertexts in Philip Roth’s Fiction, 1952–2010","authors":"J. Berlinerblau, B. Michael, Heather Walters, Stanislav Pejsa","doi":"10.4231/HEAG-QX63","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4231/HEAG-QX63","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Many scholars have contemplated the literary influences that shaped the fictional creation of Philip Roth. The endeavor to identify such influences is a complex task that may be approached in a variety of ways. As one way — but certainly not the only way — of engaging the problem, this contribution presents a quantitative tool entitled “Intertexts and Influence: A Comprehensive Table of Intertexts in Philip Roth’s Fiction, 1952–2010.” Using Roth’s 53 novels, novellas, and short stories as a database, the table measures every literary 1) author, 2) title of work, 3) character, and 4) passage/verse invoked in his oeuvre. The findings are geared toward identifying which figures Roth cited most frequently and in which of his own works he intensified his rate of intertextual invocation. At the very least, this research tool will help scholars quickly identify when and where Roth cited other writers. At best, it will facilitate the inquiries of those studying Rothian intertextuality — a quality of his fiction that must be recognized as a defining component of his aesthetic.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"121 - 89"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44476913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rise and Fall of Jewish-American Literature: Ethnic Studies and the Challenge of Identity by Benjamin Schreier (review)","authors":"Nigel Rodenhurst","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"110 - 114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45664324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT:Philip Roth’s third novel, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), hit the trifecta: it was scandalous, it was critically acclaimed, and it was a bestseller. These qualities made it a potent weapon for challenging the strict system of censorship then in place in Australia—as Penguin Books Australia realized in 1970, when it decided to publish Portnoy’s Complaint, spurring trials that continued for three years. This paper draws on archival sources and interviews to argue that Portnoy’s publication in Australia upended the system of uniform censorship, emboldened publishers and activists to further defiance, drew public attention to censorship, and proved critical to the dismantling of the censorship system that followed in 1972–73.
{"title":"Portnoy Down Under","authors":"Patrick G. Mullins","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0004","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Philip Roth’s third novel, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), hit the trifecta: it was scandalous, it was critically acclaimed, and it was a bestseller. These qualities made it a potent weapon for challenging the strict system of censorship then in place in Australia—as Penguin Books Australia realized in 1970, when it decided to publish Portnoy’s Complaint, spurring trials that continued for three years. This paper draws on archival sources and interviews to argue that Portnoy’s publication in Australia upended the system of uniform censorship, emboldened publishers and activists to further defiance, drew public attention to censorship, and proved critical to the dismantling of the censorship system that followed in 1972–73.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"41 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44298674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ABSTRACT:Recent studies of Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer (1979) have focused on how the public controversy surrounding Nathan Zuckerman’s short story “Higher Education” enables Zuckerman to separate from his family and distinguish himself as an autonomous artist. Little has been said about the impact the public scandal had on the short story itself. This article contributes to filling that gap by arguing that the public scandal brings about Zuckerman’s decision to revise the short story, extending it and publishing it as a full-length book. Rather than Zuckerman revolting against the reception of the work, the reception is a catalyst for Zuckerman’s ability to decide what to do with his manuscript. While a draft of “Higher Education” causes a stir, it might be the scandal that causes “Higher Education” to become a published book in the second installment of the Zuckerman trilogy. Zuckerman is resentful of public pressures, but he is also buoyed by the conflict with his readers.
{"title":"“Higher Education” or the Making of a Succès de Scandale","authors":"B. Streeter","doi":"10.1353/prs.2021.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/prs.2021.0005","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Recent studies of Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer (1979) have focused on how the public controversy surrounding Nathan Zuckerman’s short story “Higher Education” enables Zuckerman to separate from his family and distinguish himself as an autonomous artist. Little has been said about the impact the public scandal had on the short story itself. This article contributes to filling that gap by arguing that the public scandal brings about Zuckerman’s decision to revise the short story, extending it and publishing it as a full-length book. Rather than Zuckerman revolting against the reception of the work, the reception is a catalyst for Zuckerman’s ability to decide what to do with his manuscript. While a draft of “Higher Education” causes a stir, it might be the scandal that causes “Higher Education” to become a published book in the second installment of the Zuckerman trilogy. Zuckerman is resentful of public pressures, but he is also buoyed by the conflict with his readers.","PeriodicalId":37093,"journal":{"name":"Philip Roth Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"63 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42085261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：