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A Reluctant Public Intellectual : Seeing America through Philip Roth
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2011-05-26
Author(s)
Abstract
Philip Roth frequently stressed, both in his novels and in interviews, that he did not believe in literature's transformative powers, beyond its turning people into better readers. For instance, he shows in I Married A Communist (1998) how Nathan Zuckerman first perceives literature as a means of political persuasion, until he is taught to recognize the antagonistic relationship between art and politics. Moreover, Roth has repeatedly fought attempts by critics to read parts of his oeuvre as political allegories, most notably in the case of his novel The Plot Against America (2004). At the same time, however, he never withholds his own political opinions.
Roth's frankness combined with the politically pertinent questions raised by his novels makes him, (in)voluntarily, a sought-after observer and critic of American life. Particularly in the German speaking world, where critical literary voices such as Günter Grass or Adolf Muschg are perceived as important public intellectuals, Philip Roth is often presented as a messenger, an interpreter of American reality whose views are not only quoted in the culture pages of the newspaper, but sometimes even in the sports section. This paper shall explore what America German and Swiss media as well as scholarly works believe to recognize through their readings of and interviews with Philip Roth. It will in a first step show the extent of the media coverage and the scholarly work on Roth's novels, and then discuss in a second step how he is cast as a public intellectual, who explains the transatlantic "Other" to the German speaking reader.
Roth's frankness combined with the politically pertinent questions raised by his novels makes him, (in)voluntarily, a sought-after observer and critic of American life. Particularly in the German speaking world, where critical literary voices such as Günter Grass or Adolf Muschg are perceived as important public intellectuals, Philip Roth is often presented as a messenger, an interpreter of American reality whose views are not only quoted in the culture pages of the newspaper, but sometimes even in the sports section. This paper shall explore what America German and Swiss media as well as scholarly works believe to recognize through their readings of and interviews with Philip Roth. It will in a first step show the extent of the media coverage and the scholarly work on Roth's novels, and then discuss in a second step how he is cast as a public intellectual, who explains the transatlantic "Other" to the German speaking reader.
Language
English
Keywords
Philip Roth
public intellectual
politics and literature.
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Book title
International Roth
Start page
6
Event Title
22nd Annual Association for Library Collections (ALA) Conference
Event Location
Boston, United States
Event Date
26.-29.05.2011
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
128117