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Redemption and Empowerment Through Fiction a Comparative Analysis of Metafictional Strategies in Philip Roth’S the Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost

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Redemption and Empowerment Through Fiction a Comparative Analysis of Metafictional Strategies in Philip Roth’S the Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost Ghent University Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Redemption and Empowerment through Fiction A Comparative Analysis of Metafictional Strategies in Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost Supervisor: Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of Prof. Dr. Gert Buelens the requirements for the degree of “Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Nederlands - Engels” by Bram Vercauteren 2010-2011 Vercauteren 1 Vercauteren 2 Table of contents 1. Introduction and background ........................................................................................................... 3 2. General perception of Philip Roth’s work ....................................................................................... 5 2.1. Self-reflexivity, metafiction and authorship ............................................................................ 6 2.2. Jewish identity ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.3. Fact versus fiction ................................................................................................................. 10 3. The Ghost Writer ........................................................................................................................... 15 3.1. Introductory remarks ............................................................................................................. 15 3.2. Metafiction and self-reflexivity in The Ghost Writer ............................................................ 16 3.2.1. Overall ........................................................................................................................... 16 3.2.2. Authorship and intertextuality ....................................................................................... 22 3.3. Jewish identity ....................................................................................................................... 30 3.3.1. Discussing Jewishness with E.I. Lonoff ........................................................................ 30 3.3.2. Jewishness and Higher Education ................................................................................. 32 3.3.2.1. Nathan’s father .......................................................................................................... 33 3.3.2.2. Judge Wapter ............................................................................................................. 34 3.3.2.3. Nathan’s mother ........................................................................................................ 35 3.3.3. The Anne Frank fantasy – Femme Fatale ..................................................................... 35 4. Exit Ghost ...................................................................................................................................... 40 4.1. Introductory remarks ............................................................................................................. 40 4.2. Metafiction and self-reflexivity in Exit Ghost ....................................................................... 41 4.2.1. Overall ........................................................................................................................... 41 4.2.2. Nathan Zuckerman as an unreliable narrator ................................................................. 46 4.2.3. Authorship ..................................................................................................................... 47 4.3. Fiction as a strategy to regain control.................................................................................... 50 5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 54 6. Works cited.................................................................................................................................... 56 Vercauteren 3 1. Introduction and background The goal of this dissertation is to provide a comparative analysis of The Ghost Writer (1979) and Exit Ghost (2007), two novels by the intriguing contemporary Jewish-American author Philip Roth. These are, respectively, the first and the last novel in Roth’s so-called Zuckerman series, all of which have Roth’s supposed alter ego Nathan Zuckerman as their protagonist and narrator. In total, Roth has written nine such novels, spanning roughly the past thirty years of his career: The Ghost Writer (1979) Zuckerman Unbound (1981) The Anatomy Lesson (1983) The Prague Orgy (1985) The Counterlife (1986) American Pastoral (1997) I Married a Communist (1998) The Human Stain (2000) Exit Ghost (2007) Roth’s Zuckerman novels are known for their self-reflexivity and metafictional nature, around which my analysis and comparison of both novels is centered. I have set out to find out how the use of metafictional strategies has evolved in Exit Ghost compared to The Ghost Writer, putting it into connection with themes such as Jewish identity, authorship and using fiction to exert control over reality – hence, metafiction as a form of ‘empowerment’. First of all, I will attempt to provide a concise overview of how Roth’s work is generally perceived in the field of literary criticism, focusing mainly on the thematic categories which I have just mentioned. In chapters three and four, I provide an analysis of both novels. My analysis focuses Vercauteren 4 mainly on how both novels incorporate more or less the same narrative and metafictional strategies, but with different goals in mind. I will not thoroughly discuss the other Zuckerman novels, written in the period between the publishing of The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost . I refer shortly to some of them where it is relevant, but the intention of this dissertation is certainly not to analyze all nine novels. Vercauteren 5 2. General perception of Philip Roth’s work To define the nature of Philip Roth’s work in just a few words or to place it under the banner of one or more literary movements is a very difficult task. There are few contemporary writers who have been studied more, yet the topic is still heavily under discussion. Critics have often leaned towards postmodernism when trying to define Roth’s oeuvre, but he has never placed himself under such a denominator – or any other denominator, for that matter. Roth’s works tend to be heavily intertextual, hinting at his literary influences, but as Derek Parker Royal suggests in his essay Roth, literary influence, and postmodernism (2007), with the extensive namedropping of his characters ‘Roth may be suggesting that such efforts to forge links of legacy are inherently problematic’ (Parker Royal 23). In this chapter, I will attempt to provide a short overview of how Philip Roth’s work has generally been perceived, mainly focusing on his series of Zuckerman novels. This chapter will form the main theoretical basis upon which my analysis of The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost will be based. Due to the substantial amount of available literature on the critical reception of this prolific Jewish-American author, I have had to narrow down the number of secondary sources. I will also include some of Roth’s own opinions on how his work should be perceived. This overview will mainly center around some of the key terms that seem to return very often when reading about Roth’s work, and is in no way to be seen as an exhaustive summary. These key terms are: self-reflexivity and metafiction, authorship, and the question of Jewishness and cultural identity. Connected to and intertwined with all of this, there is also the question of autobiography versus fiction, particularly in the Zuckerman novels. Humor and satire, too, are regarded as defining characteristics in Roth’s work. As Tomás Creus (2006) puts it in his essay on Roth and self-reflexivity, Roth combines all these characteristics while ‘usually treating such themes with a good deal of humor’. Another constant factor is the intertextual nature of the Roth’s works. One of the first points that Parker Royal makes in his essay on Roth’s influences is that ‘one cannot thoroughly read Roth without taking issues of intertextuality into account’ (Parker Royal 25). This degree of intertextuality Vercauteren 6 should not be interpreted as a mere juggling and playing around with literary references. According to Parker Royal, what distinguishes Roth’s intertextual play from more customary notions of literary influence is that he ‘integrates both “high” and “low” textual references that not only decenter any notions of authority (…), but draw our attention to the ways in which texts are constructed’ (Parker Royal 26). In other words, intertextuality effectively becomes another way of reinforcing a metafictional reading of Roth’s fiction. Paker Royal speaks of the many examples of metafiction throughout Roth’s oeuvre as ‘complementing’ the aforementioned readings of intertextuality. I would rather put it the other way around, seeing Roth’s intertextual play as one of his many metafictional ‘tools’. I will discuss this correlation of intertextuality and metafiction more thoroughly in the analyses of The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost . These are the areas I have chosen as the focus of my analysis and comparison of The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost . They will be further discussed in the following subchapters. On a side note: I do realize that many of the author’s recurring themes and narrative strategies are generally perceived as postmodernist traits, but I will not discuss them
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