The negotiation of ethnic origin and American identity in selected works of Philip Roth

Abstract

The four works I decided to focus on are Goodbye, Columbus, The Ghost Writer, Operation Shylock, and The Human Stain. These four works all carry a common motif-which revolves-around the(bifurcated ) self,-that-is-constantly pulled and tugged by a sense of deep-rooted-ness and loyalty towards ethnic values on the one side, and a profound sense towards discovery and experience of "the other" away from that which is somehow already learnt and has already been experienced, on the other. According to John Mc Daniel, Roth by following Kafka's footsteps turns that which is 'familial', 'communal', and 'cultural' into literature or rather fiction. Roth transforms the concerns faced by the artist into human problems encountered by the protagonists. Thus the Rothian hero is made to go out into the world and experience the "unreality" that the American life perturbs and preoccupies him with: an 'unreality', which he can endeavour to overcome but cannot escape from. Even if he discovers himself to be an individual who is 'invisible'; an alien, unstable, vagrant, and root-less, this outward journey is essential prior to the anticipation of regeneration and 'a promise of hope'.