Roth after Eighty

Philip Roth and the American Literary Imagination

Contributions by David Brauner, Claudia Franziska Brühwiler University of St. Gallen, Alex Calder, Amy Gelbart, Aurélie Guillain, Patrick Hayes, Catherine Morley, Ira Nadel, Adam Zachary Newton, Mark Shechner, Debra Shostak Edited by David Gooblar, Aimee Pozorski

Publication date:

15 December 2016

Length of book:

214 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

239x159mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498514651

Philip Roth scholars continue to reflect on what Philip Roth’s retirement in 2012 means for the landscape of American literature and what his professed disappearance from the public eye in 2014 would mean for the future consideration of his legacy.

This collection seeks to answer those questions in a scholarly way. Composed of eleven original essays written by accomplished scholars in the field of Philip Roth Studies, the collection is both relevant and engaging on three levels: it is the first of its kind to offer a scholarly retrospective of Roth’s works and career; it considers Roth within the American literary imagination; and it speculates on Roth’s legacy—particularly the enduring quality of his novels that will continue to resonate long after his retirement.

Introduction - After Eighty: Philip Roth and the American Literary Imagination
Aimee Pozorski
1 “Every third thought shall be my grave”: Roth, Memento Mori, and Story
Debra Shostak
2 Roth @ 25: Publishing Goodbye, Columbus
Ira Nadel
3 “A Human Being Lives Here”: Philip Roth on Scandals and the American Presidency
Claudia Brühwiler
4 “With an accomplice no less brilliant than Jean Genet”: A Comparative Approach to Roth’s Autofiction
Patrick Hayes
5 Performance Anxiety: Impotence, Queerness, and the “Drama of Self-Disgust” in Philip Roth’s The Professor of Desire and The Humbling
David Brauner
6 Stalkers, Furies, and Comforters: Roth’s Grave Comedy of Persecution
Aurélie Guillain
7 “I told my wrath, my Roth did grow”: Anger in Operation Shylock
Alex Calder
8 “My Kinsmen, My Precursors”: Philip Roth, Epic, Influence, and Bardic Proclivities
Catherine Morley
9 “I was the prosthesis”: Roth and Late Style
Adam Zachary Newton
10 Performance, Affective Adaptation, Memory, Pretend Play, and Suicide in Philip Roth's The Humbling
Amy Gelbart
11 Newark: The Shtetl
Mark Shechner
Afterword - Mark Shechner’s Legacy
David Gooblar

This collection of new essays is a most fitting tribute to the 'end' of Philip Roth’s long and prolific career. The rich and varied approaches to Roth’s fiction contained in these pages reflect the enduring influence of one of the major voices of late twentieth-early twenty first century American life and thought. The essays artfully arranged in this volume seamlessly and gracefully paint a portrait of this ingeniously complex writer of our time.