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

and indebtedness to art-experiences provided by great works of the past. Another shared aspect of these novels is that conventionally the art experiences invoked should elucidate the nature of the conflict or the author's intentions but here the result is often that they rather mystify or reinvent their sources. The above status of their approach as 'cross' between a number of possible modes of expression is a relevant characteristic feature of the art of both novelists. The points of reference their characters employ are reality and intellectual-aesthetic values and by a certain shift of emphasis they project themselves into a world where reality is at a second remove. This results in the fact that even the world visibly exterior to their fiction can be conceived of as textual and the same is true in the case of the art-experiences that served as a source for the respective novels. The Breast can assume the status of a novel freed of the limitations that might arise from the 'high art' Philip Roth employs because the author has managed to cut the roots. Similarly in these novels the question of how to master the conflicts of everyday life is a function of a mobile 'reality' impossible to stabilise in exclusively traditional terms. This strategy resulted in catastrophe for Paul and Libby Hertz and Gabe Wallach, David Kepesh and Peter Tarnopol but proved quite productive for Alex Portnoy and Tricky Dixon and Nathan Zuckerman. My Life as a Man: The Novel as the Representation of Turmoil and Chaos The organising principles, which determine the structure of the plot of these works, are embedded in the plots of these novels and we can occasionally say that the structure, the design and the process by way of which they are written assume the same importance, or role of a fictional character. The violence against the Kafkan mode in literature and its terrible results are discussed by David Kepesh and his analyst. My Life as a Man seems to be the most rewarding example in this respect as the narrative structure of the novel becomes a central element of the plot, as the 'story' does not make sense if the reader ignores the highly manipulative structure and design of the book. The 130