Tragic Innocence in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral

• Authors: Gabriela Glăvan
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

American Pastoral is not only an elegiac fictional biography, but an in-depth analysis of the demise of the American dream in the context of post-war social and cultural mutations. The loss of innocence echoes the tragic mythical Fall from Paradise and the novel’s main characters, Seymour “Swede” Levov and his daughter, Merry, mirror this process in a complex and meaningful way.

Keywords

EN

innocence; tragedy; identity; the American Dream

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Romanian Journal of English Studies
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 240-253

Dates

published

2012-12-01

online

2013-02-21

Contributors

author

Gabriela Glăvan

• West University of Timisoara

References

• Bloom, H. 2009. “Introduction” in Bloom’s Literary Themes: The American Dream. B. Hobby (ed.), Infobase Publishing, pp. XV.
• Carpenter, F. I. 1955. American Literature and the Dream. New York: Philosophical Library. 253
• Dumézil, G. 1985. L’oubli de l’homme et l’honneur des dieux et autre essais. Vingt-cinqesquisses de mythologie. Paris: Gallimard.
• Fiedler, L. A. 1952, “Our Country and Our Culture” in The Partisan Review, May-June, 1952, pp. 294-98.
• Kumamoto Stanley, S. 2005. “Mourning the "Greatest Generation": Myth and History in Philip Roth's American Pastoral” in Twentieth Century Literature, Spring 2005, Vol. 51, Issue 1, pp. 1-24.
• Michel, L., Sewall B., (eds.) 1963. Tragedy: Modern Essays in Criticism. Yale University Prentice-Hall.
• Parrish, T. L. 2000. “The End of Identity: Philip Roth’s American Pastoral”, Shofar, vol. 19, No.1, pp. 84-99.
• Posnock, R. 2006. Philip Roth’s Rude Truth. The Art of Immaturity. Princeton University Press.
• Roth, P. 1998. American Pastoral. London: Vintage Books.
• Rubin-Dorsky, J. 2003. “Philip Roth and American Jewish Identity: The Question of Authenticity” in Bloom H. (ed.). Modern Critical Views. Philip Roth. Chelsea House, pp. 205-233.
• Safer, E. B. 2006. Mocking the Age. The Later Novels of Philip Roth, State University of New York Press .
• Shechner, M. 2007. “Roth’s American Trilogy” in Parrish, T. (ed.). The Cambridge Companionto Philip Roth. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 142-158.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10319-012-0023-x