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Serving His Tour as "Exasperated Liberal and Indignant Citizen" : Philip Roth as a Public Intellectual
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2014-08-30
Author(s)
Abstract
This conference paper will be published in "A Political Companion to Philip Roth," edited by Claudia Franziska Brühwiler and Lee Trepanier, University Press of Kentucky.
In his last appearance in Exit Ghost (2007), Philip Roth's writer-protagonist Nathan Zuckerman refuses to take any interest in presidential politics and take the public stage to share his opinion: "I've served my tour as exasperated liberal and indignant citizen […]. I don't wish to register an opinion, I don't want to express myself on ‘the issues'?I don't even want to know what they are. It no longer suits me to know, and what doesn't suit me, I expunge. That's why I live where I do" (36-37). He thereby mirrors his creator's view that, apart from writing books, a writer is just "an ordinary citizen" (Minkmar 2), who enjoys "no greater moral authority than a plumber" (ibid.). But while Zuckerman longs for his withdrawal from the public arena, Roth deplores the public status of writers in the United States and repeatedly contrasts it with the reverence writer-intellectuals still enjoy in some European countries. In spite of this nostalgia, Roth has often played hide-and-seek with those journalists who tried to address him as a public intellectual. Thus one wonders to what extent he did indeed try to assume the role of a public intellectual, as a - thus the direction of most definitions - "critical guardian of humane and universal values" (Kemp 199) who speaks "the truth to power" (Said 25).
This paper explores Philip Roth's public engagement and his struggles with the role of more than "an ordinary citizen" who happens to write books. In particular, it sheds light on the ways he interprets his public role differently in the U.S. and abroad, using the geographic distance of his interlocutors to reflect on the political regime he witnesses the closest. Inevitably, this discussion is linked to the way Roth believes literature can shape the people's political thought and opinion.
In his last appearance in Exit Ghost (2007), Philip Roth's writer-protagonist Nathan Zuckerman refuses to take any interest in presidential politics and take the public stage to share his opinion: "I've served my tour as exasperated liberal and indignant citizen […]. I don't wish to register an opinion, I don't want to express myself on ‘the issues'?I don't even want to know what they are. It no longer suits me to know, and what doesn't suit me, I expunge. That's why I live where I do" (36-37). He thereby mirrors his creator's view that, apart from writing books, a writer is just "an ordinary citizen" (Minkmar 2), who enjoys "no greater moral authority than a plumber" (ibid.). But while Zuckerman longs for his withdrawal from the public arena, Roth deplores the public status of writers in the United States and repeatedly contrasts it with the reverence writer-intellectuals still enjoy in some European countries. In spite of this nostalgia, Roth has often played hide-and-seek with those journalists who tried to address him as a public intellectual. Thus one wonders to what extent he did indeed try to assume the role of a public intellectual, as a - thus the direction of most definitions - "critical guardian of humane and universal values" (Kemp 199) who speaks "the truth to power" (Said 25).
This paper explores Philip Roth's public engagement and his struggles with the role of more than "an ordinary citizen" who happens to write books. In particular, it sheds light on the ways he interprets his public role differently in the U.S. and abroad, using the geographic distance of his interlocutors to reflect on the political regime he witnesses the closest. Inevitably, this discussion is linked to the way Roth believes literature can shape the people's political thought and opinion.
Language
English
Keywords
Philip Roth
politics and literature
public intellectual
political novel
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Refereed
No
Book title
McConnell Center for Political Leadership
Publisher
tb
Start page
30
Event Title
2014 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) 204
Event Location
Washington, D.C.
Event Date
28.-31.08.2014
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
234160