Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2000. [Vol. 6.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 26)
Studies - Tibor Tóth: The Golden Cradle: Philip Roth's Revision of the Golden Bough Tradition
world it depicted, but the condition of the person who'd been doing the imagining; the manuscript was the message, and the message was Turmoil. (M.L.A.M. 238) So Tarnopol invokes art as a possible source of freedom, yet in reality his search for freedom is nothing but fictiveness, a multiplication of possible 'realities,' which prevent any valuable contact with the factual world. Tarnopol's fictional revisions and corrections are mercilessly displaying his incapacity to achieve authority over both felt life and fiction. He ends up being dominated by his stubborn insistence on participation in the creative process over which he has no authority. His attempts to revise his own life fail; he is neither a successful 'man' nor a successful 'writer.' Peter Tarnopol has to acknowledge his manuscript as a 'corpse,' which he cannot bring himself to remove from "the autopsy room to the grave" (M.L.A.M. 238). The death of a fictional alternative authorised by Tarnopol himself closes the circle featuring a perplexed artist-hero searching in vain for identity or freedom. II. 7. The Narrative "I" as an Object (a Breast) Since demonstrating all the narrative innovations employed in the three novels by Philip Roth would require more space than I can afford I am going to restrain my conclusions in this respect to his handling of style and discourse in The Professor of Desire , his manipulation of the narrative T in The Breast and his experiment with the narrative structure in My Life as a Man. David Kepesh's declared temptation is for high art, but he is dedicated to sexual greed. He is characterised by the above hypocrisy and the style and the language of the novel actually hesitates between the discourses and registers characteristic of pornography, or pulp magazines and high art. The contrast thus created at the level of the style is characteristic of all three Philip Roth novels discussed in the present chapter. Similarly, Peter Tarnopol and Nathan Zuckerman quote at length Henry James and Conrad against an essentially pornographic background. The outcome of the plot in Philip Roth's novels suggests that the humiliations and failures of traditional literary discourse lead to the 126
