Jewish anxiety and the novels of Philip Roth
By: Brett Ashley Kaplan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 204
ISBN-13: 9781623562946; 9781528925036; 9781628925043
Subjects: Criticism and interpretation; Judaism and literature; Anxiety in literature; LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General; LITERARY CRITICISM / General; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies
Description: "Jewish Anxiety and the Novels of Philip Roth argues that Roth's novels teach us that Jewish anxiety stems not only from fear of victimization but also from fear of perpetration. It is impossible to think about Jewish victimization without thinking about the Holocaust; and it is impossible to think about the taboo question of Jewish perpetration without thinking about Israel. Roth's texts explore the Israel-Palestine question and the Holocaust with varying degrees of intensity but all his novels scrutinize perpetration and victimization through examining racism and sexism in America. Brett Ashley Kaplan uses Roth's novels as springboards to illuminate larger problems of victimization and perpetration; masculinity, femininity, and gender; racism and anti-Semitism. For if, as Kaplan argues, Jewish anxiety is not only about the fear of oppression, and we can begin to see how these anxieties function in terms of fears of perpetration, then perhaps we can begin to unpack the complicated dynamics around the line between the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine"--

"Uses Roth's novels as springboards to illuminate larger problematics of victimization, gender, racism and anti-Semitism"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 178-199) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter One: Jewish Anxiety: "Goodbye Columbus," "Eli, The Fanatic," and Portnoy's ComplaintChapter Two: Spectres of Roth: The Ghost Writer, Exit Ghost, and Zuckerman UnboundChapter Three: Double-Consciousness and the Jewish Heart of Darkness: The Counterlife and Operation Shylock Chapter Four: The American Berserk: Sabbath's Theater and American Pastoral Chapter Five: Playing it Any Way You Like: The Human StainChapter Six: Counterfactual Terror: The Plot Against AmericaConclusion: What we talk about when we talk about Anne FrankBibliographyIndex.