Mocking the Age

Elaine B. Safer

Description

The first comprehensive assessment of Philip Roth's later novels, Mocking the Age offers rich and insightful readings that explore how these extraordinary works satirize our contemporary culture. From The Ghost Writer to The Plot Against America, Roth uses humor to address deadly serious matters, including social and political issues, psychological problems, postmodern concerns, and the absurd. In her clear and extensive analyses of these works, Elaine B. Safer looks at how Roth's approach to the comic incorporates the self-deprecating humor of Jewish comedians, as well as the humor of nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewish storytellers and such twentieth-century writers as Bernard Malamud and Saul Bellow. Filling the void on critical examinations of Roth's later work, Safer's book provides a thorough appraisal of Roth's lifetime accomplishment and an essential evaluation of his comic genius.

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: “Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness”

2. From The Ghost Writer to The Counterlife: Comic Incongruity and the Road to Postmodernism

3. Operation Shylock: The Double, the Comic, and the Quest for Identity

4. Sabbath’s Theater: Sabbath’s Fear of Death—Raunchy? Picaresque? Heroic?

5. American Pastoral: The Tragicomic Fall of Newark and the House of Levov

6. I Married a Communist: “A Grave Misfortune Replete with Farce”

7. The Human Stain: Comic Irony and the Lives of Coleman Silk

8. The Dying Animal: “Pleasure Is Our Subject”

9. The Plot Against America: Paranoia or Possibility?

10. Conclusion: “The Farcical Edge of Suffering”

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• USA
• United States of America
• États-Unis
• Humour

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791481974
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Mocking the Age The Later Novels of Philip Roth

Elaine B. Safer

Mocking the Age

SUNY series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture

Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor

M O C K I N G T H E A G E 

The Later Novels of Philip Roth

ELAINE B. SAFER

S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K P R E S S

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2006 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press, 194 Washington Avenue, Suite 305, Albany, NY 12210-2384

Production by Christine Hamel Marketing by Michael Campochiaro

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Safer, Elaine B. Mocking the age : the later novels of Philip Roth / Elaine B. Safer. p. cm. — (SUNY series in modern Jewish literature and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6709-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Roth, Philip—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series.

PS3568.O855Z884 2006 813'.54—dc22

ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6709-1 (hardcopy : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6710-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2005012803

For my students at the University of Delaware

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Acknowledgments

Contents

1. Introduction: “Sheer Playfulness and Deadly Seriousness”

2. FromThe Ghost WritertoThe Counterlife: Comic Incongruity and the Road to Postmodernism

3.Operation Shylock:The Double, the Comic, and the Quest for Identity

4.Sabbath’s Theater:Sabbath’s Fear of Death—Raunchy? Picaresque? Heroic?

5.American Pastoral:The Tragicomic Fall of Newark and the House of Levov

6.I Married a Communist:“A Grave Misfortune Replete with Farce”

7.The Human Stain:Comic Irony and the Lives of Coleman Silk

8.The Dying Animal:“Pleasure Is Our Subject”

9.The Plot Against America:Paranoia or Possibility?

10. Conclusion: “The Farcical Edge of Suffering”

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

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Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the University of Delaware for a year’s fellowship in the Cen- ter for Advanced Study in support of this project. I thank the Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware for their support of this book. So, too, I thank International Programs for funding a visit to Paris to meet with the editors of Édition Gallimard, which has published Roth’s novels in French. Thanks go to the librarians at the Uni- versity of Delaware for their help in tracking down materials, especially to Director Susan Brynteson, who graciously gave me various materials in timely fashion, and to Linda Stein, associate librarian. I also thank Karen M. Kral, information research consultant, for the miraculous macros she invented to facilitate my word processing. Thanks also are due to the Fulbright Associa- tion for an award and also for their help in defraying expenses so that I was able to give lectures on postmodernism and Roth at the Sorbonne, the Uni- versity of Valencia, University of Orleans, and University College, Dublin. I am grateful for the advice and generosity of friends and colleagues who truly have shown me the benefit of being part of the academic community. Special thanks go to those who shared their expertise with me by contributing valuable suggestions on chapters of the book. These are Sarah Blacher Cohen, editor of the State University of New York Press’s Jewish American Literature series, Lazare Bitoun (who has translated several of Roth’s novels for Édition Gallimard), Ernest W. Craven, Richard A. Davison, William I. Homer, Mark Krupnick, Donald C. Mell, Derek Royal, Mark Shechner, Damie Stillman, Judith Villamarin, and Ben Yagoda. At Édition Gallimard, editors Christine Jordis, Pascale Richard, and Philippe Sollers graciously agreed to interviews and shared information about reviews of Roth’s work, his reputation, and their experiences with him. AtLe Monde, Josyanne Savigneau and Martine Silber were very helpful. I wish to thank Margaret P. Hassert and Camille Hale for

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