In history's grip : Philip Roth's Newark trilogy / Michael Kimmage.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kimmage, Michael.

Series:

Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture.

Stanford studies in Jewish history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Roth, Philip, 1933-2018--Criticism and interpretation.

Roth, Philip.

American literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (213 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In History's Grip concentrates on the literature of Philip Roth, one of America's greatest writers, and in particular on American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, and The Human Stain. Each of these novels from the 1990's uses Newark, New Jersey, to explore American history and character. Each features a protagonist who grows up in and then leaves Newark, after which he is undone by a historically generated crisis. The city's twentieth-century decline from immigrant metropolis to postindustrial disaster completes the motif of history and its terrifying power over individual destiny. In History's Grip is the first critical study to foreground the city of Newark as the source of Roth's inspiration, and to scrutinize a subject Roth was accused of avoiding as a younger writer—history. In so doing, the book brings together the two halves of Roth's decades-long career: the first featuring characters who live outside of history's grip; the second, characters entrapped in historical patterns beyond their ken and control.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

One. Newark

Two. Leaving

Three. At History's Mercy

Conclusion; or, Kafka in Newark

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804783675

0804783675

OCLC:

796383675