The Failure of Identity: Toward a New Literary History of Philip Roth's Unrecognizable Jew

Abstract

This article challenges an influential historicism in Jewish American literary study that takes for granted that Jewish American literature is primarily representational. This kind of historicism inevitably links into a nationalist project to secure (that is, by assuming) a specifically Jewish subject formation that would unify all historical expressions of Jewish culture. Through a rereading of Philip Roth's "Goodbye, Columbus" but with reference across his oeuvre, this article argues that the primary drama in Roth's fiction is the failure of available terms and paradigms to express Jewish identification compellingly. It is not that Roth's characters do not want to be Jews; it is that they do not know how to describe themselves as Jews. The article makes a case for revisioning Jewish American literary study as primarily critical, as displacing the positive subject representational historicism expects to find in it.

Writing Progeny: Elisa Albert and Philip Roth

“…Neil's initial conversation with Brenda about whether she should use a diaphragm spans six pages, and begins when Neil admits that, unlike Ron, he was not ready to 1 For readings of Jewish-American identity in the work, see Silvey (2014), Schreier (2011), Aarons (2007 and Levine (1970). Such critics as Kutlu (2008), France (1988) and Doyle (1994) have read the work in terms of the commodity culture inherent in the American dream.…”