The Philip Roth We Don't Know: Sex, Race, and Autobiography Hardcover ? September 14, 2021

Berlinerblau, Jacques

ISBN 10: 0813946611 / ISBN 13: 9780813946610

Published by University of Virginia Press, 2021

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26384678028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Philip Roth We Don't Know: Sex, Race, and Autobiography Hardcover ? September 14, 2021
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813946611
• ISBN 13: 9780813946610
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Let it be said, Philip Roth was never uncontroversial. From his first book, Roth scandalized literary society as he questioned Jewish identity and sexual politics in postwar America. Scrutiny and fierce rebukes of the renowned author, for everything from chauvinism to anti-Semitism, followed him his entire career. But the public discussions of race and gender and the role of personal history in fiction have deepened in the new millennium. In his latest book, Jacques Berlinerblau offers a critical new perspective on Roth’s work by exploring it in the era of autofiction, highly charged racial reckonings, and the #MeToo movement.

The Philip Roth We Don’t Know poses provocative new questions about the author of Portnoy’s Complaint, The Human Stain, and the Zuckerman trilogy first by revisiting the long-running argument about Roth’s misogyny within the context of #MeToo, considering the most current perceptions of artists accused of sexual impropriety and the works they create, and so resituating the Roth debates. Berlinerblau also examines Roth’s work in the context of race, revealing how it often trafficked in stereotypes, and explores Roth’s six-decade preoccupation with unstable selves, questioning how this fictional emphasis on fractured personalities may speak to the author’s own mental state. Throughout, Berlinerblau confronts the critics of Roth ―as well as his defenders, many of whom were uncritical friends of the famous author―arguing that the man taught us all to doubt "pastorals," whether in life or in our intellectual discourse.

About the Author

Jacques Berlinerblau is Rabbi Harold White Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University and author most recently of Campus Confidential: How College Works, or Doesn’t, for Professors, Parents, and Students.