“Memoir” as Counter-Narrative
Philip Roth’s 2004 novel The Plot Against America famously imagines what America might have been like had the aviator Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer, won the 1940 election for President of the United States. That alternate history is focalized through the experiences of Roth as a young boy –...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Danish |
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Aalborg University Open Publishing
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Akademisk Kvarter |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak/article/view/2507 |
| _version_ | 1797228497500897280 |
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| author | Howard Sklar |
| author_facet | Howard Sklar |
| author_sort | Howard Sklar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Philip Roth’s 2004 novel The Plot Against America famously imagines what America might have been like had the aviator Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer, won the 1940 election for President of the United States. That alternate history is focalized through the experiences of Roth as a young boy – or those that the author-as-character has conceived within this radically altered world, with the real-world Holocaust as backdrop. By identifying a genuine counter-historical potentiality – one that is grounded in actual anti-Semitic insecurities that prevailed at the time, even in the relatively tranquil American context – Roth’s counter-narrative reimagines his actual past by redefining the significance of his identity as a Jew. At the same time, rather than presenting a portrait of “the American Jewish experience” of the period by conceptualizing Jews and Jewish experience monolithically, Roth manages to embrace the complexities and ambiguities of his search for self-definition, of which his Jewishness remains an enigmatic but essential part.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:57:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4d36f0ac024e48e3bba1eef354d77477 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1904-0008 |
| language | Danish |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T14:57:38Z |
| publishDate | 2018-11-01 |
| publisher | Aalborg University Open Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Akademisk Kvarter |
| spelling | doaj.art-4d36f0ac024e48e3bba1eef354d774772024-04-02T17:01:09ZdanAalborg University Open PublishingAkademisk Kvarter1904-00082018-11-011710.5278/ojs.ak.v0i17.2507“Memoir” as Counter-NarrativeHoward Sklar Philip Roth’s 2004 novel The Plot Against America famously imagines what America might have been like had the aviator Charles Lindbergh, a Nazi sympathizer, won the 1940 election for President of the United States. That alternate history is focalized through the experiences of Roth as a young boy – or those that the author-as-character has conceived within this radically altered world, with the real-world Holocaust as backdrop. By identifying a genuine counter-historical potentiality – one that is grounded in actual anti-Semitic insecurities that prevailed at the time, even in the relatively tranquil American context – Roth’s counter-narrative reimagines his actual past by redefining the significance of his identity as a Jew. At the same time, rather than presenting a portrait of “the American Jewish experience” of the period by conceptualizing Jews and Jewish experience monolithically, Roth manages to embrace the complexities and ambiguities of his search for self-definition, of which his Jewishness remains an enigmatic but essential part. https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak/article/view/2507Jewish, identity, Roth, Holocaust, counter-narrative |
| spellingShingle | Howard Sklar “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative Akademisk Kvarter Jewish, identity, Roth, Holocaust, counter-narrative |
| title | “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative |
| title_full | “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative |
| title_fullStr | “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative |
| title_short | “Memoir” as Counter-Narrative |
| title_sort | memoir as counter narrative |
| topic | Jewish, identity, Roth, Holocaust, counter-narrative |
| url | https://journals.aau.dk/index.php/ak/article/view/2507 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT howardsklar memoirascounternarrative |