Reading Philip Roth PDF
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READING PHILIP ROTH Reading Philip Roth Edited by ASHER Z. MILBAUER Associate Professor of English Florida International University and DONALD G. WATSON Associate Professor of English Florida International University M MACMILLAN PRESS © Asher Z. Milbauer and Donald G. Watson 1988 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1988 978-0-333-40459-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LID Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset by Wessex Typesetters (Division of The Eastem Press Ltd) Frome, Somerset British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Reading Philip Roth 1. Roth, Philip--Criticism and interpretation I. Milbauer, Asher Z. 11. Watson, Donald G. 813'.54 PS3568.0855Z1 ISBN 978-1-349-19121-5 ISBN 978-1-349-19119-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-19119-2 For our wives and parents Luba, Tzviya and Yishayahu Nancy, Louise and Garner Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Notes on the Contributors xiii 1 An Interview with Philip Roth 1 Asher Z. Milbauer and Donald G. Watson 2 The Artist as a Jewish Writer 13 Aharon Appelfeld 3 From Newark to Prague: Roth's Place in the American-Jewish Literary Tradition 17 Hana Wirth-Nesher 4 The Shape of Exile in Philip Roth, or the Part is Always Apart 33 Martin Tucker 5 Strangers in a Strange Land: The Homelessness of Roth's Protagonists 50 Estelle Gershgoren Novak 6 Half a Lemon, Half an Egg 73 Martin Green 7 Fictions of Metamorphosis: From Goodbye, Columbus to Portnoy's Complaint 82 Donald Kartiganer 8 Fiction, Show Business, and the Land of Opportunity: Roth in the Early Seventies 105 Donald G. Watson 9 Portnoy's Prayer: Philip Roth and the American Unconscious 126 Sam B. Girgus vii viii Contents 10 'None Other': The Subject of Roth's My Life as a Man 144 Patrick O'Donnell 11 Some Notes on Roth's My Life as a Man and The Professor of Desire 160 Milan Kundera 12 The Son is Father to the Man 168 Clive Sinclair 13 The Unspeakable Self: Philip Roth and the Imagination 180 Jonathan Brent Index 201 Preface By presenting our readers with the thirteen essays especially written for this anthology, * we hope to extend the critical understanding of Philip Roth's fiction and to clarify some fundamental misunderstandings of his intentions and meanings. After having reviewed both the academic and journalistic critical responses to Roth's canon, we realise that while some of them are solid and helpful, many are permeated by a constant confusion of tale and teller, a confusion that defeats the very essence of literary criticism - to lead the reader to the text rather than away from it. In fact, this is exactly what Nathan Zuckerman, Roth's protagonist- author and frequently his mouthpiece as well, requires of the critic of his own fiction: 'It's one thing to think you're pretending to your students when you tell them there's a difference between the characters and the author, if that's the way you see it these days- but to strip the book of its tone, the plot of its circumstances, the action of its momentum, to disregard totally the context that gives to a theme its spirit, its flavor, its life -.' Although out of breath and too exasperated to complete his sentence, Zuckerman manages to convey a clear message to his critics: to perceive the book's tone, to follow its plot, to discern the spirit of its theme the text must be read. Indeed, this obsessive urge to read attentively and to respond reflexively emerges not only as a recurrent motif in Philip Roth's fiction but also as a key to understanding it. One cannot help but notice that all of Roth's main fictional characters are constantly reading and responding to their readings. Whether they read, interpret (or misinterpret) Shakespeare or Chekhov, Flaubert or Mann, James or Babel, Kafka or Tolstoy, or themselves, as Zuckerman's own case testifies, they remind Roth's own readers of the notion that literature matters, that it may be a means to know the world and bring meaning to an 'unhallowed existence'. All this, however, can be achieved only if the writer's work is read. And there is hardly anything wrong, maintains Roth in his interview with us, if it is then misread, provided 'what's meant [by • Milan Kundera's essay is based upon two pieces published in French but rewritten for this volume. The editors are responsible for the translations. ix x Preface rnisreadings] isn't [a] reading that's shallow and stupid, but that's fixed in its course by the reader's background, ideology, sensibility, etc.'. In editing this collection of essays we never asked of our contributors anything more than to reread Roth's books and to suggest fresh ways of looking at his corpus of fiction. This they have done with much discretion, skill, and talent. We are grateful to them. A.Z.M. D.G.W. Acknowledgements While editing this anthology we accumulated a number of debts. We want to thank David Reif for his assistance in translating from French and Richard Schwartz for his helpful comments on several of the essays. Our special thanks go to Elaine Dillashaw and Vilma Valdes for preparing the manuscript for publication and patiently responding to our many demands. Finally, we should like to thank Philip Roth for being accommodating and generous with his time. Permission to quote from Zuckerman Bound published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux is gratefully acknowledged. xi
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