Transgressing the Racial Confinement in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain
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Michael Kayode Olusa
Abstract
The study of US identity has always been the epicenter of all of Philip Roth’s novels. In this respect, The Human Stain (2000) illustrates both the will to belong to a chosen community and the idea of being in charge of one’s existence. The plot follows the African American and professor of classics, Coleman Silk, who passes for a Jew for fifty years. This act of passage is called “passing.” In other words, it is the ability of a light-skinned black individual to pass for white so as to free themselves from the social confinement imposed on black US citizens – thus achieving individual freedom. In an attempt to determine what constitutes this racial confinement in The Human Stain, I will focus on three aspects: the essence of Americanness, transgression as the conditio sine qua non of passing, and scriptural imposture as the impossibility for the passer to tell their own narrative. By trying to define the two concepts of imposture and transgression, it is possible to assert that both notions are indispensable for the implementation of passing. That is to say, in order to escape racial confinement, imposture and transgression must work together.
Abstract
The study of US identity has always been the epicenter of all of Philip Roth’s novels. In this respect, The Human Stain (2000) illustrates both the will to belong to a chosen community and the idea of being in charge of one’s existence. The plot follows the African American and professor of classics, Coleman Silk, who passes for a Jew for fifty years. This act of passage is called “passing.” In other words, it is the ability of a light-skinned black individual to pass for white so as to free themselves from the social confinement imposed on black US citizens – thus achieving individual freedom. In an attempt to determine what constitutes this racial confinement in The Human Stain, I will focus on three aspects: the essence of Americanness, transgression as the conditio sine qua non of passing, and scriptural imposture as the impossibility for the passer to tell their own narrative. By trying to define the two concepts of imposture and transgression, it is possible to assert that both notions are indispensable for the implementation of passing. That is to say, in order to escape racial confinement, imposture and transgression must work together.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Acknowledgments 5
- Table of Contents 7
- Confinement Studies in American Literature 1
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Part I: Confinement Narratives of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
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Fiction
- “Clapt in that prison”: Confinement in Anne Bradstreet’s “Of the Four Ages of Man” 19
- Masculine Competition and Confinement in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables 35
- Modernist Forms of Freedom and Captivity in Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger and Franz Kafka’s The Castle 49
- Transgressing the Racial Confinement in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain 67
- Counternarratives of Confinement in Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM” 87
- When We Make It – Nuyorican Constriction and Dreams of Freedom 109
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Acknowledgments 5
- Table of Contents 7
- Confinement Studies in American Literature 1
-
Part I: Confinement Narratives of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
-
Fiction
- “Clapt in that prison”: Confinement in Anne Bradstreet’s “Of the Four Ages of Man” 19
- Masculine Competition and Confinement in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables 35
- Modernist Forms of Freedom and Captivity in Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger and Franz Kafka’s The Castle 49
- Transgressing the Racial Confinement in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain 67
- Counternarratives of Confinement in Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience TM” 87
- When We Make It – Nuyorican Constriction and Dreams of Freedom 109
