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Updike, Morrison, and Roth: the Politics of American Identity

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Updike, Morrison, and Roth: the Politics of American Identity The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-2013 Updike, Morrison, and Roth: The Politics of American Identity Christopher Steven Love University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the American Literature Commons, and the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Love, Christopher Steven, "Updike, Morrison, and Roth: The Politics of American Identity" (2013). Dissertations. 229. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/229 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi UPDIKE, MORRISON, AND ROTH: THE POLITICS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY by Christopher Steven Love A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2013 ABSTRACT UPDIKE, MORRISON, AND ROTH: THE POLITICS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY by Christopher Steven Love December 2013 My dissertation analyzes American identity in the works of John Updike, Toni Morrison, and Philip Roth. Specifically, I examine American identity in Updike’s Rabbit tetralogy (1960-1990); Morrison’s trilogy of novels Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998); and Roth’s trilogy comprising the novels American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000). The studied texts of these three novelists, I argue, attack national myths and undermine exclusive narratives that are incongruent with the nation’s ideal identity as a pluralistic and democratic nation. ii COPYRIGHT BY CHRISTOPHER STEVEN LOVE 2013 The University of Southern Mississippi UPDIKE, MORRISON, AND ROTH: THE POLITICS OF AMERICAN IDENTITY by Christopher Steven Love A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: _Dr. Maureen Ryan___________________ Director _Dr. Jonathon Barron__________________ _Dr. Kate Cochran____________________ _Dr. Charles Sumner___________________ _Dr. Ellen Weinauer___________________ _Susan A. Siltanen____________________ Dean of the Graduate School December 2013 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank the dissertation director, Dr. Maureen Ryan, and the other committee members, Dr. Jonathan Barron, Dr. Kate Cochran, Dr. Charles Sumner, and Dr. Ellen Weinauer. As a graduate student, I was challenged in each of their courses, and their standards for achievement were always a source of motivation for this project. I would like to extend a special thanks to Dr. Ryan for her patience and support throughout this process. In addition, I would like to thank Dr. Jeffrey Pusch for advice on general aspects of writing the dissertation. Special recognition should also go to the John Updike Society. The author was able to present preliminary portions of this dissertation at two conferences sponsored by the JUS. At these conferences, the author received advice and encouragement in regard to the project. Finally, there is no way that this project could have been completed without the encouragement received from the author’s wife, Evelyn, who provided logistical and emotional support throughout this process. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………..………………iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: JOHN UPDIKE, TONI MORRISON, PHILIP ROTH AND “THE AMERICAN CENTURY”………………………………….1 II. JOHN UPDIKE’S RABBIT TETRALOGY: RABBIT AND AMERICA’S SHARED IDENTITY CRISIS……………………..……………………32 Rabbit Angstrom in Context Rabbit, Run and America’s Protestant Legacies Rabbit Redux: Rabbit’s Tangled Garden Rabbit is Rich: “Running out of Gas” or Second Win? Rabbit at Rest: Rabbit and Reagan, Dream Men III. TONI MORRISON’S TRILOGY: CULTURAL TRAUMA AND THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY………………………..…………………...136 Toni Morrison’s Trilogy in Context Beloved: The Spectacle and the Chronotope of the Ship Jazz: The Limits of Allegory and the Chronotope of the City Paradise: Myth and Ritual IV. PHILIP ROTH’S AMERICAN TRILOGY: ZUCKERMAN’S PASTORAL ELEGY……………………………………………….….198 Philip Roth’s American Trilogy in Context American Pastoral: The Price of Myth I Married a Communist: American and Jewish Identity Reconciled? The Human Stain: Arcadia Asunder V. CODA…………………………………………………………...……...263 WORKS CITED………………………………………………………………………..270 iv 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: JOHN UPDIKE, TONI MORRISON, PHILIP ROTH AND “THE AMERICAN CENTURY” On February 17, 1941 Henry Luce, creator of the popular and influential American magazines Time, Fortune, and Life, published an essay titled “The American Century.” Advocating America’s entry in World War II, Luce argued that the United States was already at war and that the nation should use the war as an opportunity to spread democracy and to replace Britain as the leader of the free world. Luce framed his argument for American dominance by invoking one of the country’s foundational myths: that America was destined to become the world’s shining example of freedom and democratic republicanism: [This] nation, conceived in adventure and dedicated to the progress of man - this nation cannot truly endure unless there courses strongly through its veins from Maine to California the blood of purposes and enterprise and high resolve. Throughout the 17th Century and the 18th Century and the 19th Century, this continent teemed with manifold projects and magnificent purposes. Above them all and weaving them all together into the most exciting flag of all the world and of all history was the triumphal purpose of freedom. It is in this spirit that all of us are called, each to his own measure of capacity, and each in the widest horizon of his vision, to create the first great American Century. (Luce 65) 2 Although Luce couched his plan in humanitarian terms (“We must undertake now to be the Good Samaritan of the entire world”), he declared that the United States had a right “for such purposes as we see fit . to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence” (Luce 64). By invoking a foundational American myth, Luce attempts to tie his very practical definition of American identity to its ideal identity as a beacon of freedom and democratic republicanism. National identity stems from what a nation imagines it shares in common, and a nation’s myths often play an important role in the making of a nation’s identity (Anderson 6). A national myth may be derived from actual historical events, but the contexts for these events are ignored, or as Ernest Renan and Benedict Anderson put it, national myths require its members to forget details of history in order to make the myth function as desired. Therefore, national myths dehistoricize historical events and reorganize them into a grand narrative that serves as a transcending and controlling story for the rest of the nation. I use “grand narrative” in the general meaning of Jean-Francois Lyotard from The Postmodern Condition. In this sense, a grand narrative, or alternately “metanarrative,” is a type of sweeping narrative meant to tell the story of a nation, totalize and universalize the national experience, and legitimize policies as leading to the destined outcome of the nation’s “story.” Thus, the policy itself, as in the example of Luce’s essay, is framed to become a part of the narrative. The grand narrative may be the originating myth or a derivative from it that supports the overarching myth. Thus, the myth is often invoked to justify, explain, or decide the nation’s policies and actions. National myths, then, are ideological narratives through which a nation state derives a 3 core set of political and cultural values that seek to unite its people.1 From these values, expressed and enacted in law, culture, and social expectations, paradigms for concepts of a nation’s identity come into being. Ideally, members of the nation, then, also adhere to the paradigms and, thus, signify that they belong to that nation. One result of a national identity is that the nation will set out to fulfill its identity through its political and legal policies. Therefore, the nation uses its apparatuses in order to enforce such policies. As members of the nation who adhere to the paradigms of national identity, the people support and help enforce the nation’s missions. Thus, the application and enforcement of such policies would reveal a nation’s practical, or to borrow from Louis Althusser, its material identity, or its identity as reflected by its actual practices, which might be either in accordance with or in opposition to its ideals. But national identities are problematic first because conflicting national narratives often pervade a nation and second because of disconnect between its material identity and ideal identity (the harmony between a nation’s practices and its ideals). In addition, people of a nation interpret the meanings of a nation’s practices differently with respect to the ideal. This has been especially true in the United States. American identity is a complex concept since competing narratives not only emanate from conflicting political parties and the cacophony of mass media but also from the nation’s tremendously large and diverse population. In order to bolster definitions of American
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