A Study Of Philip Roth’s Literary Writing Of Social Modernity Problems In American Pastoral And The Human Stain

Having been writing for nearly 50 years and won various literary prizes of the same number,Philip Roth has had 29 novels published up to now.Except his obviously Kafkaesque The Breast,the rest of his works are realistic,carrying his profound reflection and criticism of contemporary American society.This thesis is focused upon Roth’s literary writing of social modernity problems,mainly probing into two representative works of his late creation,American Pastoral and The Human Stain.The term of modernity has been defined by Matei Calinescu into two categories,“modernity as a historical phase of Western civilization” and “modernity as an aesthetic conception”,the former of which he further refined to “bourgeois modernity”.The argumentation of this thesis is mainly based upon Calinescu’s former definition of modernity as “a historical phase of Western civilization” or “bourgeois modernity”.In the course of secularization and rationalization of modernity,one of its main characteristics is the awakening of subjective consciousness,which,strongly believing in “the doctrine of progression”,advocated “the worship of rationality”,“self-possessed ideal”,“pragmatism”,and “the fetish of action and success”,all of the ideas that each one has to strive to achieve the value and significance of his own existence,using his strength to actualize his dream of self-made success by means of transforming the surrounding world out of his own intention and inclination.The protagonists in American Pastoral and The Human Stain,Seymour Irving Levov,nicknamed as Swede Levov and Coleman Silk,a professor of Greek and Roman literature,are two typical representatives of awakening subjective consciousness in the context of modernity,who struggled to pursue their own significance and value,only to be derided and devoured by destiny.Actually,this is the biggest paradox in capitalistic society of modernity,in which each individual is encouraged to pursue his own self value and self significance,yet eventually helplessly isolated and engulfed under the challenge and reproach from their rivals and even their relatives in the name of free competition.This thesis dwells upon Roth’s deep reflection of modernity world in the two novels,pointing out the literary demonstration of various social problems such as the degradation of classics,the secularizing professionalism of humanity intellectuals,the fragmentation of subjective consciousness,the rebellion of youth and the social disintegration and contradiction,and as well,presenting a tentative discussion of the possible resolution of these problems.The Introduction,as a lead-in to the following argumentation,contains 3 sections,respectively telling the personal and literary experiences of Roth,the status quo of Roth research abroad and at home,and the academic strategy of this thesis.The First Chapter,“The Pushing of Secularization and Rationalization”,also contains 3 sections,namely the awakening of subjective consciousness,the course of “disenchantment” and “‘the death of God’”,which,mainly by means of interpreting the two protagonists,Swede Levov and Professor Coleman Silk and looking back onto modern American literature,illustrate how secularization and rationalization combined to usher human world to the stage of modernity,and push spirit and soul step by step to the corner of decadence and death in the name of materialism and desire,resulting in Weber’s “disenchantment” and Nietzsche’s “the death of God”.The two sections of Chapter 2,“The Degradation of Classics”,are mainly focused upon how secularization and rationalization managed to have classics deconstructed and rejected.Probing into the present American social state and Roth’s complaining remark,Section 1 describes the slight and marginalization of classics,and Section 2 explains how humanity intellectuals,with the examples of Coleman Silk and Delphine Roux,made efforts to have classic works deconstructed,distorted,degraded and finally desolated in the spirit of unique and innovative interpretation.Chapter 3,“The Fall of Humanity Intellectuals”,consists of 4 sections.The First Section makes a rough historical review of how Western philosophical thoughts became gradually rationalized.Making two case studies of Coleman Silk and Delphine Roux,Section 2 illuminates how the secularizing professionalism of humanity intellectuals were finally brought into reality with their own fall in the context of rationalization.The Third Section looks into how Coleman Silk and Delphine Roux became eventually apathetic bureaucrats in the institutional system and how Delphine managed to use her administrative power insidiously.Section 4 explains how Coleman Silk,as a representative of humanity intellectual,was cornered into estrangement and isolation,suffering the typical fate of intellectuals,banished desolation.The Fourth Chapter,“The Fragmentation of Subjective Consciousness”,is divided into 4 sections.The First Section describes the social reality of “the end of history” and “the loss of depth” mirrored in the two novels,and Section 2 explains how the social state of “a lonely crowd” comes about in contemporary U.S.through a textual interpretation of the two novels.In Section 3,the despairing rebellion of youth is dwelled on with a case study of Merry,daughter of Swede Levov in American Pastoral,and Section 4 discusses the contradictions between elites and the masses in The Human Stain,between capitalism and its opposition in the persons of Swede Levov and Merry in American Pastoral,looking into the mutual estrangement and conflicts described in the novels.Finally,Chapter 5,“The Resolutions of the Problems”,presents 4 sections of further thoughts about the above-mentioned problems.The First Section argues that those social problems in the two novels are actually an inevitable consequence out of the historical antinomy of capitalistic modernity,namely an ethical predicament of modernity: The capitalistic modernity has helped achieve an unprecedented rapid social progress,especially those various scientific and materialistic break-throughs,while at the same time has also provoked an enormous spiritual and psychological crisis as well as the above problems.Section 2 and Section 3 look into the effectiveness of Paul Tillich’s conceptions of “absolute faith” and “ultimate concern” and Habermas’ communicative rationality in resolving the problems.The Fourth Section,based on Liang Shuming’s criticism of capitalism,argues that the traditional Chinese conception of “benevolence”,as another subjective consciousness,could present a redemptive adjustment of significance to the Western subjectivity focused on “self-interest” and “egoism”.