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‘Slipping the Punch’ – Roth’s Playful Pugilism in The Human Stain
Phillip Roth’s writing is characterised by conflict between a desire to champion the individual over societal codes and conventions, and an almost fatalistic sense that these countervailing forces will always overwhelm individual self-determination and self-expression. This conflict often manifests in, at the very least, an ambivalence about language itself: as Kasia Boddy expresses it in Boxing, A Cultural History, ‘For Roth, the very idea of direct and authentic address has always been suspect’ (Boddy 371) This analysis will primarily comprise close reading of passages from Roth’s novel The Human Stain, making explicit the connection between language play, identity play, …show more content…
In Dor, J, Ch.13). I will argue that The Human Stain certainly makes a case for the subjectivity of personal experience and identity and the inadequacy of various metanarratives – not least an excessively politically correct mode of race and gender discourse – for understanding or expressing personal history and identity; that these things must sometimes ‘be lost’ for self and personal integrity to be found. A further claim will be made that, while such crudely ideological grand narratives and language modes will be shown to be especially subject to scrutiny in Roth’s work, the broader Lacanian critique of language as operating as a flat system – where meaning is transferred between signifiers – will be relevant. The alternative of boxing as a playful, performative and/or ritualistic mode of violence will be important here; where boxing can be conceived as a mode of self-expression apart from conventional language use, politically correct or otherwise; apart from the symbolic order, to give it a Lacanian framing, perhaps even as something more akin to a depth model (of language). Joyce Carol Oates’ seminal On Boxing, will be useful in elucidating these ideas. Boddy’s analysis of contemporary …show more content…
In The Human Stain however, while the progressive dimension of the bildungsroman form with regards to the psychological development of its protagonist is largely maintained, the conservative dimension of ultimate assimilation into the societal norm is not. The bildungsroman’s generic structure is eventually playfully complicated and even subverted, not least since Professor Silk’s ‘mentoring’ roles are disparate and of varying success; from the egalitarian mutual-mentoring of the blissfully unassimilated pariahs he enjoys in his sexual relationship with Faunia Farley, to the cruel rejection he receives from his formerly most loyal mentee as his daughter is caught-up in the spirit of judgement and censure to which he falls victim. Narrative ‘play’ is of course central to the psychologically progressive mode of this novel: its narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, making explicit that his construction of its various narratives is largely fictitious, a way of allowing him to make sense of the incongruity between, on the one hand, his own impressions of its tragic heroes, such as Coleman, and the other, their designated social identities, such as the ‘racist professor’; part
‘Slipping the Punch’ – Roth’s Playful Pugilism in The Human Stain
Phillip Roth’s writing is characterised by conflict between a desire to champion the individual over societal codes and conventions, and an almost fatalistic sense that these countervailing forces will always overwhelm individual self-determination and self-expression. This conflict often manifests in, at the very least, an ambivalence about language itself: as Kasia Boddy expresses it in Boxing, A Cultural History, ‘For Roth, the very idea of direct and authentic address has always been suspect’ (Boddy 371) This analysis will primarily comprise close reading of passages from Roth’s novel The Human Stain, making explicit the connection between language play, identity play, …show more content…
In Dor, J, Ch.13). I will argue that The Human Stain certainly makes a case for the subjectivity of personal experience and identity and the inadequacy of various metanarratives – not least an excessively politically correct mode of race and gender discourse – for understanding or expressing personal history and identity; that these things must sometimes ‘be lost’ for self and personal integrity to be found. A further claim will be made that, while such crudely ideological grand narratives and language modes will be shown to be especially subject to scrutiny in Roth’s work, the broader Lacanian critique of language as operating as a flat system – where meaning is transferred between signifiers – will be relevant. The alternative of boxing as a playful, performative and/or ritualistic mode of violence will be important here; where boxing can be conceived as a mode of self-expression apart from conventional language use, politically correct or otherwise; apart from the symbolic order, to give it a Lacanian framing, perhaps even as something more akin to a depth model (of language). Joyce Carol Oates’ seminal On Boxing, will be useful in elucidating these ideas. Boddy’s analysis of contemporary …show more content…
In The Human Stain however, while the progressive dimension of the bildungsroman form with regards to the psychological development of its protagonist is largely maintained, the conservative dimension of ultimate assimilation into the societal norm is not. The bildungsroman’s generic structure is eventually playfully complicated and even subverted, not least since Professor Silk’s ‘mentoring’ roles are disparate and of varying success; from the egalitarian mutual-mentoring of the blissfully unassimilated pariahs he enjoys in his sexual relationship with Faunia Farley, to the cruel rejection he receives from his formerly most loyal mentee as his daughter is caught-up in the spirit of judgement and censure to which he falls victim. Narrative ‘play’ is of course central to the psychologically progressive mode of this novel: its narrator, Nathan Zuckerman, making explicit that his construction of its various narratives is largely fictitious, a way of allowing him to make sense of the incongruity between, on the one hand, his own impressions of its tragic heroes, such as Coleman, and the other, their designated social identities, such as the ‘racist professor’; part