论文总字数：45845字

摘 要

Introduction 1

Chapter One Confusion over Double Identities4

1.1 American Writer Born and Bred Locally4

1.2 Unchangeable Jewish Identity7

Chapter Two Paradox between the Professional Ethics and Jewish Descent 9

2.1 Thought about the Jewish Identity 9

2.2 Professional Ethics: Describing Jew Truthfully11

Chapter Three Paradox on Living Spaces14

3.1 Zuckerman: “Philip Roth” in the Virtual World 14

3.2 “He” and “She”: Fictitious Self in Memory 15

Conclusion18

Works Cited20

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Hu Yonghui, for his warm-hearted encouragement and valuable advice, especially for his insightful comments and suggestions on the draft of this paper. Without his help and guidance, I could not have completed this paper.

My sincere thanks also go to all the English teachers at the School of Foreign Languages in Southeast University. They have unfolded the charm of English to me, and provided me with fundamental and essential academic competence.

Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family members and friends for their affection and inspiration. They are always giving spiritual support to me.

Abstract

Philip Roth is one of the most prominent Jewish American novelists and one of the hottest candidates in competing Nobel Literature Award. He has never stopped writing because of his age. Compared with his other writings, Exit Ghost has not been given adequate critical attention both at home or abroad. Based on textual analysis and close reading, this study tries to explore the real Roth who hides behind the character he creates.

This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One expounds and verifies the double identities Roth and Zuckerman born with and explores Roth’s attitude towards this double identities between the lines. Like his protagonist Nathan Zuckerman, Roth suffers from the conflict between the conventional Jewish culture and the modern American thought. The second paradox is about Roth’s active thinking about how to balance himself well between Jewish identity and his profession. As a professional writer, he could not and does not praise Jews because of ethnic emotion. But he still cannot write without any Jewish elements. The only solution for him is to describe Jews truthfully. That is why he was not welcomed by some Jews and was regarded as an Anti-Semitic person by them. This chapter reveals the conflict between the writer’s identity and the Jewish ethnicity. The third paradox is about Roth’s living position; this is also a puzzle many writers have to face. It is hard for writers to find the bound between fact and fiction. Roth admits that fiction includes more or less element of autobiography, but it doesn’t mean fiction is autobiography. So he created Nathan to defend himself.

The final part is the conclusion of the dissertation. The novel reveals the split personality and self-crisis of the writer-protagonist deeply mired in various kinds of intense conflicts. This study highlights the tensions between self and society, self and profession, fact and fiction. Nathan Zuckerman is Roth’s alter ego rather than Roth himself. The dissertation also argues Philip Roth has been trying to defend himself against the charges through the combination of himself with his character.

Key words: Philip Roth; Exit Ghost; Identity Paradox; Jewish Identity

摘要

菲利普·罗斯是当代美国文坛最著名的犹太作家之一，也是近年来诺贝尔文学奖呼声最高的获奖人之一。虽年逾古稀，但他从没有停止创作的脚步。评论界对其几部闻名世界的著作已经进行了充分的研究，但对其近些年的新作却显得关注不足。对其发布于2007年的《退场的鬼魂》，评论更是凤毛麟角，且鲜有人从身份问题的角度解读这部作品。本文试图以细读法和文本分析法为基本方法；以面临身份困惑和自我危机的小说主人公为研究对象，对隐藏在小说主人公背后的罗斯进行分析。揭示步入晚年的菲利普·罗斯在面对他复杂的身份这一问题上的态度，分析罗斯眼中的犹太移民在美国的生存现状并且引发人们对于种族之间关系的思考。

本篇论文主体部分由三章组成。第一章从罗斯和祖克曼与生俱来的美国犹太人双重身份角度出发，通过文本分析法对罗斯字里行间体现的他对这种身份的态度进行分析。本论文认为，如同作者笔下的主人公一样，罗斯本人也经历着传统的犹太文化和先进的美国文化带来的冲击，是一个在不同文化之间的分裂自我。第二章是关于罗斯对他作家身份和犹太后裔之间关系的主动思考。作为一名职业作家，他不能也确实没有为犹太人唱赞歌。但他也做不到完全脱离犹太后裔的身份。唯一的解决办法就是真实的描写犹太人，这也是他被一些人误解为反犹太的原因。揭示了作家自我和和犹太自我身份之间的冲突。第三章分析了一个许多作家共同面临的问题，他们都经历着现实与虚构之间的冲突，即很难找到文字世界和非文字世界之间的界线。罗斯承认任何小说都或多或少有自传的性质，但不可以说小说等同于自传。这也是他创造祖克曼来给自己当挡箭牌的原因。

最后一部分为论文的结论部分。结论认为从小说主人公祖克曼身上，我们看到了一个在各个层面都自我矛盾的菲利普·罗斯，揭示了自我与种族；自我与职业；现实与虚构之间的张力和冲突。研究认为，祖克曼是罗斯的“他我”，祖克曼的个人经历和心路历程在一定程度上是罗斯对自己的认识。但我们应该辩证的看待虚构人物和作者本身的关系，祖克曼可以被看做是罗斯的另一个自我，但绝非罗斯本人。通过将自我和虚构人物的完美结合，罗斯实现了在文学中为自己辩护。

关键词：菲利普•罗斯；《退场的鬼魂》；身份悖论；犹太身份

Introduction

Philip Roth, born in 1933 in Newark, is one of the most important American Jewish writers. Since his first published book, he has drawn people’s attention on himself and his works and that is the reason he is one of the most attractive writers in today’s American Literature. From 1959 till now, Roth received numerous awards. His special writing method and his work made him looked like an anti-Semitic person because most of his works are talking about the confusion and perplexity of today’s American Jews through describing their dark side of life. Roth has said that he is not a Jewish writer; he is a writer and happens to be a Jew. But his discussion of Jewish and America has never stopped. Also, people’s study of his work has never been stopped.

The earliest research and comment overseas is the essay published on Chicago Review in the late 1950s called Philip Roth and Jewish Moralists. The essay aims at discussing whether Roth will damage Jewish traditional morality. The most representative comments on 1960s are Meeter Glenn’s master’s thesis “Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth A Critical Essay” (1968) and Nadon Robert Joseph’s doctoral thesis “Urban Values in Recent American Fiction: A Study of the City in the Fiction Saul Bellow, John Updike, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, and Norman Mailer” (1969). The former objects that Roth is smearing Jewish image; it also compares Roth with traditional Jewish writer Malamud. The latter compares Roth with traditional Jewish traditional writers. Reviews of Roth during 1950s to 1960s focus on his “Anti-Semitic” writing style.

In 1970s, monographs and review articles of Roth experienced a substantial growth compared with ten years before. There are 16 monographs, 58 newspaper articles and 11 related essays by other monographs during this period. Moreover, several doctoral theses were published in 1970s. Mc Daniel, John Noble’s “Heroes in the Fiction of Philip Roth” (1972) analyzes and summarizes the Jewishness reflected on different characters. Hogan Jerry Bruce’s “The Problem of Identity in the Fiction of Philip Roth” (1979) talks about Roth’s identity confusion. No matter research perspectives, number of people or the hotness, they all increased dramatically from this period.

In 1980s, research on Philip Roth grew faster than before. Foreign researchers did their study in many ways include psychology, feminism, historical, father figure, dissimilation and so on. There are 22 monographs, 63 related papers and six related doctoral theses. The most notable achievements are Charles Berryman’s “Philip Roth: Mirrors of Desire” (1983) and his essay “Jewish Self-Consciousness in Portnoy’s Complain”. The writer analyzes the mentality of characters of Roth’s books through the principles of Psychology. Another famous research is Cohen, Joseph’s “Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained: Reflections on Philip Roth’s recent Fiction” which studied the biblical archetype in Roth’s books. Monographs reached 45 in 1990s and nearly one hundred related articles. People’s focus has changed from “anti-Semitic” to other aspects.

In 21^st century, foreign researchers still pay high attention to Philip Roth. There are 107 published articles related to Roth between 2001 and 2008. Moreover, Philip Roth Society was formed in 2002 in order to provide people with a base for those who are interested in Roth.

Compared with the mature environment in western literature world, China’s research on Philip Roth didn’t begin until the late 1980s. The increasing number of people has begun to translate Roth’s works. More and more scholars have started to study his books. Some famous works like The Ghost Writer, Portnoy’s Complaint, The Breast, The Counterlife and Eli have drawn many people’s attention. Many Chinese critics are interested in Roth’s treatment of identity. Yang Weidong has published his “Fictitiousness of Identity: The Counterlife in Philip Roth’s Zuckerman Series” (2004) in Foreign Literature Review, this thesis focuses on the ambiguity and confusion of the characters in the book. Yuan Xuesheng’s “The Existential Paradox behind the Metaphor of Identity: Philip Roth’s The Human Stain” published in Foreign Literature Studies centers on the existential paradox of individuals in the current society. Another thesis, which reveals Roth’s concern of Jewish cultural identity, is Guan Jianming’s “Juxtaposition of Versions of Contrapuntal Lives and Pursuit of Jewish Cultural Identity” (2009).

By comparison, Exit Ghost is studied much less than other Zuckerman series fictions. The biggest reason is that this book was published in 2007; Chinese version was published in 2011. So, there is not that enough of time for researchers to study. Another reason is that this book is not Roth’s masterpiece like Goodbye, Columbus or The Counterlife. But this book is still worth studying, as the last book of Zuckerman series, we can gain a thorough understanding of Roth’s attitude to Jews and American after he struggled for several fictions.

Chapter One Confusion over Double Identities

Critics and readers are always trying to seek connection and traces of similarity between figures and their inventors. Philip Roth is no exception. Some even go so far as to say that Roth is none other than Nathan himself. Zuckerman is, like Roth, a Jewish descendent born in a European immigrant family, a boy grew up in a Newark Jewish neighborhood, a professional writer, and especially the author of a successful yet “notorious” novel. “It seems that Roth is not only obsessed with the relationship of art to life, but particularly obsessed with the relationship between the life he writes about and the life he actually experienced and remembered.” (Tanner 3). Although Roth doesn’t admit that his works are autobiographies, we can explore Roth’s inner world by analyze his figures.

As a Jewish American novelist, Nathan has long been confused by his double identities. He is an American, at the same time, and the son of the first generation of the Jewish immigration. His elder generation realized that the Jewish tradition might become a burden in the process of adapting the American lifestyle. This is a bitter double consciousness because it is difficult for American Jews to choose to integrate into American society utterly or insist the Jewish culture confirmedly. It is also this consciousness that gets the early Jewish immigrants into trouble. On one hand, they are not willing to give up the Jewish tradition. On the other hand, they have to fit in mainstream culture of America. Compared with Nathan’s parents, the second generation of Jewish immigrants, represented by Nathan, accepted American life-style and value orientation more positively, but they can still feel the unconformity and incompatibility between mass culture of America and the Jewish immigrants’ life.

In this chapter, I’m going to discuss Nathan’s struggling among American and Jewish identities to explore his self-cognition in his inner world.

• 1. American Writer Born and Bred Locally

In China, there is a statement called “the writing mirrors the writer himself.” In France, Buffon said, “The style is the man himself”(Buffon, 1972). Both the western statement and the Oriental expression prove that there is undoubtedly a connection between the writing and the writer. A person’s literary style must be influenced by his or her experience and personality. Therefore, any discussion or study of a writer cannot afford to ignore his or her writings. So, in order to explore Roth’s inner world, we could start with the discussion about the characters he created. It is necessary for us to delve into Roth who created Nathan Zuckerman.

“I did not want to marry a Jewish girl. I did not want my children to be raised in the Jewish religion or have anything to do with being Jews”(Roth, Exit: 6). Larry who is Nathan’s friend and neighbor after he moved to the Berkshires says this. And Nathan doesn’t show any indignation or anger to Larry’s avoidance of Jews, instead, he just asked “why?” without too much emotion (6). What we can learn from this brief conversation is that Nathan doesn’t think highly of his Jewish identity as the older generation does. His friend, Larry, doesn’t care of Nathan’s race either and does not avoiding discussion of this topic intentionally. In Larry’s eyes, though Nathan is the son of Jewish, he is an infirm advocate of Jews. That’s why Larry dares to say those unfriendly words of Jews to Nathan. And Nathan’s peaceful reaction also verifies that he is not a mad-brained follower of his inherent race. Comparatively speaking, he is more like an American born and bred locally and has no gap between the full-blooded American.

In chapter two, Roth spends a lot of ink describing the 2004 American presidential election. “…and then preceded quickly on my way to watch the election results of a campaign that, for the first time since I was made aware of election politics-when Roosevelt defeated Willkie in 1940-I knew barely anything about”(68). Nathan is not indifferent to the election because of his family’s outsider identity. On the contrary, he shows particular interest in the result just like every normal American. Except this, he takes an assertive stance in the Democratic Party and has sophisticated understanding of every successive U.S. President.

I had campaigned for Stevenson as a college student and had my juvenile expectations dismantled when Eisenhower trounced him, first in 1952 and then again in 1956; and I could not believe what I saw when a creature so rooted in his ruthless pathology, so transparently fraudulent and malicious an Nixon, defeated Humphrey in 1968, and when, in the eighties, a self-assured knucklehead whose unsurpassable hollowness and hackneyed sentiments and absolute blindness to every historical complexity became the object of national worship and, esteemed as a “great communicator” no less, won each of his two terms in a landslide. And was there ever an election like Gore versus Bush, resolved in the treacherous ways that it was, so perfectly calculated to quash the last shameful vestige of a law-abiding citizen’s naiveté (68-69).

It is not hard to see Nathan’s attitude to each president and the election politics. He is just like any other Americans who care election very much and have their own opinions on presidents’ character, personality and whether having the quality to be a president. It is absolutely impossible to say that Nathan’s attitude has nothing to do with Roth. If not based on Roth’s knowledge of election, there would not be such a role that has a thorough understanding of politics. The political standing of Nathan is also related to Roth’s choice. “I had been an avid voter all my life, one who’d never pulled a Republican lever for any office on my ballot”(68). We can even say Roth is expresses his political viewpoint through Nathan.

Not only the main character, but also other figures of this novel reveals the fact that Roth doesn’t think Jewish immigrants are not real Americans. For example, a person called Billy who invites Nathan to watch the election together at home is a Jewish boy who’s family owned a luggage and umbrella shop in Philadelphia (33).

“The television set was on when I arrived, and Billy assured me the election was in the bag—he was in touch with a friend at Democratic national headquarters, and their exit polls showed Kerry winning all the states he needed ”(70-71).

This passage again proves how well the Jewish people have blended into American society in Roth’s mind—they are localized enough to have a friend that works in government. Roth himself doesn’t like to be labeled: “I am not a Jewish writer; I am a writer who is a Jew. The biggest concern and passion for my life is to write fiction, not to be a Jew”(Roth, Intellectual: 35). This is also his attitude when he created characters, although the characters may come from a Jewish family, they would not be labeled a different or special group of people.

• 1. Unchangeable Jewish Identity

On the other side, as an American writer born in a Jewish family, Roth is also clear about the fact that he cannot completely get rid of the influence of the Jewish heritage. Frederic Nietzsche once said: “no one can totally free himself from the history and that he cannot learn to forget but hangs on to the past: however far or fast he runs, the historical chain runs with him.”(Newton 81) The traditional Jewish belief, concepts, values and habits have more or less left their mark on his literary works.

“Where you knew worse was as a Jewish child under the Nazis in Oslo.” (Roth, Exit: 156) This is what Nathan said to a woman called Amy who he has met only once few decades ago. From their conversation, we can know the fact that Zuckerman knows Jewish history very well.

Not only himself believe that he cannot thoroughly free from the Jewish background, but also others regard him as the representation of Jews and think he is relevant to Zionism

Dear Jew bastard, we are part of a new international organization to counter the growth of the racist, filth-laden philosophy ZIONISM. As yet another Jew parasitizing “goy” countries and their inhabitants, you have been marked down to be targeted. Because of the location of your Jew York apartment, it has fallen to this “department” to do the “targeting.” This notice marks the beginning. (53)

The above letter is Nathan first received a threat because of his Jewish identity. From then on, “I had received communications as vile and ominous in the past, but never more than a couple a year, and most years none at all” (54). This is the reason why Nathan left New York, bought a cabin in Western Massachusetts and stay there for eleven years. Although he is not a one hundred percent Jewish, he still be puzzled by this only because his forefathers’ identity which he cannot change all life. People around also suffer a lot because of Nathan’s identity. During the same period a reviewer living in the Midwest who’d had once written a laudatory review of a book about him in The New York Times Book Review also received a threatening postcard picturing the pope. We can see how serious the influence is to Nathan. His Jewish identity not only brought him puzzlement in life, but also brought him and people connected to his personal safety problem. His own explanation of this is “because of something in my fiction that enticed them or that infuriated them or that enticed them because it infuriated them or that infuriated them because it enticed them. I’d be through more than one such unsettling intrusion because of the conception of their author that the books had inspired in the minds easily swayed into fantasy by fiction.” (54).

Characters of Exit Ghost are basically Jewish people，the conventional group represented by Lonoff and Amy, who insist their traditions and not willing to make changes in order to fit in American life style, live a miserable life; while Jamie and her husband, who represent new generation of American Jews, accommodate their way of life to America finally integrated into the society. The energetic boy, Kliman, just like the young Nathan Zuckerman who abandoned Jewish tradition and falls into the arms of American culture. He is the best model of “aggressive spirit” in American culture. About the living condition of characters of this fiction, we can get the opinion of Roth is that the traditional Jewish culture has gone; the new generation of Jews has been submerged by American culture. What’s worse, readers misunderstand the one that wants to express national sentiments indirectly from the reverse side. Both Zuckerman and Roth are elderly. Their memory and creativity are failing. Will they exit the society? Where is the future of Jews?

Chapter Two Paradox Between the Professional Ethics and Jewish Descent

Several main characters in Exit Ghost are Jewish writers who suffer from great inward conflicts; this is also what Philip Roth focuses on for a long time. Contradictions and multiplicity are the characteristics of most of the characters he invented.

The biggest conflict for Philip Roth and Nathan Zuckerman is how to balance their writer identity with their Jewish heritage. Any professional writer should be aware of his or her identity and their duty is to tell the truth to readers without any worry that his or her works may hurt a group of people; nothing should be hidden because of concern for people’s feeling. Another difference between writers and non-writers is writers can go beyond the world they exist in easily, but it is not easy for others to separate themselves from their physical world. Once they go beyond the real world and enter a written world which is alive with lots of imagination, they may feel confused.

On the other hand, as Jewish descendants, neither Zuckerman or Roth can free themselves totally from Jewish history, and they cannot strictly neglect their existence as Jews. Their Jewish past and mind-set may be a burden to them all the time. To some extent, they live under the shadow of their forefathers and their beliefs.

2.1 Thought about the Jewish Identity

The difference between the second section of Chapter One and this part is that this section discusses the Jewish identity Roth was born with which could not be denied or changed, this part will talk about Roth’s active thinking about this identity and how this thinking influenced his work.

Although Zuckerman was living in America, he was surrounded by Jewish people; from the first teacher who introduced him to literature, to the woman he loved when he was young; even the new literature who runs counter to Roth’s principles is a “large, agile, imposing” (96) young Jewish man. We can acquire a lot of information about Jewish people’s living conditions in America through Roth’s description of his characters.

The story of Jamie and Billy, her husband, best illustrates the situation of Jews in America. “In Philly now for four generations. My great-grandfather started the family business” (73). “Middle-class Jewish boys that continue to be branded with the family empathy” (71). These are Zuckerman’s descriptions of Billy who is a young Jewish man; although he was born in America and doesn’t grow up under Jewish culture, he still maintains the Jewish traditional family empathy. From the Jewish perspective, what are American’s attitudes towards Jews? When Billy was asked “And how did the Houston money feel about your being a Jew?”(77), he answered: “Her parents weren’t thrilled. The mother just cried. It was her father who took the cake. When Jamie came home to tell them we were engaged, he put his head in his hands, and that’s what he did from then on, every time my name was mentioned.” (77). After one three-week silence, her father finally sends her a one- sentence mail: “I love you, sweetheart, but I cannot accept that boy.” (78). Not only unacceptable to her father, he even hints to Jamie that “if she went through with marrying a Jew he would cut her off” (78). From the above situation, we can clearly see the attitude of traditional Americans towards Jews is not friendly . Although Jamie’s mother is not as cruel as Jamie’s father, her tears still prove that she is not willing to let her daughter marry a Jewish boy.

Until here, Philip Roth is describing facts about the existing condition of Jews in America. Jews have fit in well to American society but still maintain some of their traditions; some Americans still buck against Jews but some have accepted them, even though they are not happy. The final result Roth designed for this couple best reflects his attitude towards the contemporary social situation.

“It’ being Jamie and Jews. Their country club lets in Jews now. That wouldn’t have been the case in her grandparents’ time, or even as recently as fifteen years ago, with her parents’ generation. It’s all pretty new. Like letting Jews and blacks into Kinkaid. That’s relatively new. The Jewish girls were Jamie’s study buddies”(79).

Finally, Jamie’s conventional father doesn’t have the ability to separate Jamie and Billy. Just like Roth writes in this book: “this is the century of Jamie and Jews.” Perhaps some obstinate Americans were not willing to accept Jews, but they had no other choices. Actually, this is not Jamie’s first Jewish boyfriend. “The brother of one of Jamie’s Jewish girlfriends, Nelson Speilman, who attracted St. John’s, the other prestigious prep school in Houston-was her boyfriend for two years, until he went off to Princeton the year before she graduated from Kinkaid.” (79). This example again proves that in Roth’s eyes, Jews are accepted by most people, they can date Americans and study at prestigious schools, though there still exist some obstructers.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：45845字