The Conflict Of Selves And The Construction Of Identity

The present dissertation is a study of Philip Roth's Zuckerman Bound Trilogy, aseries of novels published mainly in the 1980s. Philip Roth is one of the mostprominent and prolific contemporary Jewish American novelists. Of his writings,Zuckerman Bound Trilogy has not been given due critical attention both at home andabroad. Based on relatively detailed textual analysis, this study tries to examine andexplore this series of novels from a cultural perspective, elaborates on theprotagonist's split personality and identity crisis, and traces his unremitting searchfor a balanced self. In the Introduction, the key terms and the basic referential frame for theresearch are explicated, and a literary review is presented of Philip Roth's novels,especially that of the Zuckerman Bound series. Based on Philip Roth's own conceptions of selfhood and the split personality,Chapter One gives a prior analysis of Roth's own selfhood. Like his protagonistNathan Zuckerman, Roth suffers from the conflict between the writer's identity andthe Jewish ethnicity as well as from the tension between fact and fiction and,thereupon, becomes a split individual oscillating between the written world and theunwritten world. From Chapter Two through Chapter Five, the selfhood analysis is applied toNathan Zuckerman, the writer-protagonist invented by Philip Roth. Focusing on TheGhost Writer the first novel of the trilogy, Chapter Two highlights the significance ofthe young writer's literary pilgrimage. Through a scrutiny of Nathan's alter egos ––the secluded literary maestro Lonoff, his protégée Amy Bellette and Abravanel thewriter different from Lonoff, this part reveals the conflicts between the conscientiouswriter and the Jewish son, between actuality and imagination, and between two viidivergent modes of writing. Focusing on Zuckerman Unbound the second novel of the trilogy, ChapterThree accentuates the loss of Nathan's selves with his establishment as a writer offame and fortune: the loss of matrimony, of the paternal patronage and of his Jewishcommunity. It reveals Nathan's paradox of losing the subjects and Jewish roots forhis fictional writings now that he has established himself as a successful writer. Based on a discussion of the third novel The Anatomy Lesson, Chapter Fourendeavors to trace the source and implications of Nathan's mysterious and symbolicailment. Through an in-depth exploration of Nathan's unidentified pain and hisobsession with this pain, the chapter brings to critical attention Nathan's conflictsbetween self and society, self and history, and the writer's conscience and Jewishconsciousness. The study of the novella "The Prague Orgy", the Epilogue to this trilogy,occupies Chapter Five, in which Nathan's travel to Prague is interpreted as hisintended reconciliation of himself with his Jewish fathers and Jewish tradition and ashis attempted redemption of his assumed crime against the Jews. The final ironicalconfirmation by the Czech inspector of his Jewish identity cannot calm Nathandown completely and, on the contrary, it announces that his problem remains andthat he has to carry on his unrelenting search for the harmony of the split selves Chapter Six is the conclusion of the dissertation. This trilogy as a whole isconcerned with the growth of a young Jewish American artist and his unremittingsearch for a balanced self and, therefore, is regarded as an inseparable and organicunity. Besides, the trilogy reveals the split personality and self crisis of thewriter-protagonist deeply mired in various kinds of intense conflicts. This studyhighlights the tensions between fact and fiction, self and society, self and history,and the artist's conscience and the Jewish consciousness. This conclusion tries to viiisolve the mysteries or misunderstandings concerning Nathan Zuckerman thefic...