Conspiracy Theory as Therapy in Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America”?

• Authors: Michał Różycki
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

By focusing on a passage in Philip Roth’s book, this paper strives to outline how conspiratorial beliefs can have a therapeutic function for the community which has experienced a traumatic event. Fictitious groups depicted in such texts serve as the ultimate causes of humanity’s misgivings: from natural disasters and diseases that plague it to the inherent flaws of political and social systems. Such beliefs, however, are likely to become as dangerous as the cure, a threat Roth hints at in his work. The second part of the paper will look at the viability of conspiracism as a means to address traumatizing issues, in the context of the postmodern condition and the diffusion of motifs until recently present only in the radical texts of popular culture

Keywords

EN

Conspiracy theory; trauma; Philip Roth; Alternate History

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Linguaculture
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 2013
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 47-58

Dates

published

2013-06-01

online

2015-04-18

Contributors

author

Michał Różycki

• Institute of English Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland

References

• Alexander, Jeffrey C. “Toward a Theory of Cultural Trauma”. Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Ed. Jeffrey C. Alexander, et al. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2004. 1-30. Print.
• Barkun, Michael. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Print.[WoS]
• Bratich, Jack Z. Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2008. Print.
• Dick, Philip K. The Man in the High Castle. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1965. Print.
• Gilarek, Anna. “The Vision of Fascist America in Alternate History Novels by Philip K. Dick and Philip Roth”. (Mis)Reading America: American Dreams, Fictions, and Illusions. Ed. Izabela Ratusińska. Kraków: Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych UNIVERSITAS, 2011. Print.
• Hofstadter, Richard. The Paranoid Style in American Politics. New York: Vintage Books, 2008. Print.
• Fenster, Mark. Conspiracy Theories. Secrecy and Power in American Culture. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
• Kaufmann, Bill. “Heil to the Chief”. The American Conservative. Sept. 2004. Web. 20.02.2012.
• Keeley, Brian L. “Of Conspiracy Theories”. in The Journal of Philosophy. 96: 3. 109-126. Web. 22.07.2009.
• Kennedy, John F., Jr. “Editor’s Letter”. George (Oct. 1998), 18. Print.
• Knight, Peter. Conspiracy Culture. From Kennedy to The X-Files. New York & London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
• ---. “Making Sense of Conspiracy Theories”. Conspiracy Theories in American History. An Encyclopedia. Ed. Peter Knight. ABC-Clio, 2006. EBook.
• ---. “Conspiracy Theories about 9/11”. in Centre for International Politics Working Paper Series, No. 34, August 2007. Web.
• Lewis, Sinclair. It Can't Happen Here. Garden City, New York : Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935. Print.
• Olmsted, Kathryn S. Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.
• Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America. New York: Vintage Books, 2005. Print.
• Rouse, Joseph. “Power/Knowledge”. in The Cambridge Companion to Foucault. Ed. Gary Gutting. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 95-122. Print.
• Wood, Gordon S. “Conspiracy and the Paranoid Style: Causality and Deceit in the Eighteenth Century”. The William and Mary Quarterly 39, 3 (Jul., 1982). 401-441. Web. 13.09.2011.[Crossref]
• Yardley, Jonathan. “Homeland Insecurity”. Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post Company, Oct. 2004. Web. 20.02.2012.
• Žižek, Slavoj. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/lincu-2015-0007