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
In Philip Roth's books the above diversity is visible at the level of the plot as well and attracts our attention to a paradoxical introspection. 2 Actually self-reflexivity becomes an important element, a possibility to fictionally interpret the condition of both life and the art of fiction in Philip Roth's The Breast , The Professor of Desire and My Life as a Man. His characters are in an extremely difficult situation because they exist in a fictionally postmodern world where the rules of the world 'which is outdoing even the contemporary artist's imagination'(Roth, Reading 42) make sense only for the protagonist who senses the presence of the 'novelist god.' The best-known Rothian character who matches the above definition is Nathan Zuckerman, the notorious manipulator, pornographer, rebel and literary father. In the present paper I attempt to discuss some aspects of the 'context,' which leads to Zuckerman's 'conception' in The Professor of Desire and The Breast and his birth in My Life as a Man the 'cradle' proper of this notorious artist character. The Professor of Desire Philip Roth's characters try to achieve freedom aided by artistic imagination and creativity many Rothian characters manipulate texts in the hope that this strategy could grant them authority over both the surrounding reality and intellectual-aesthetic values. Philip Roth's characters do not always get support from their creator in their attempt to interpret the world around them, yet they do their best to master the conflicts of everyday life fully aware of the power of the textual environment. However, the text over which they are attempting to assume authority in its turn achieves a kind of freedom resulting from the characters' inability to fully master it in either the terms of 'high art' or those of reality. Their attempts and consequent failures reveal dimensions we could term meta-artistic and meta-existential respectively, I avoid the term metaphysical intentionally. As the Rothian character 'emplots' his understanding of art into his individual reinterpretations of the fictionally real conflicts he 2 For a comprehensive treatment of self-conscious fiction see Patricia Waugh's 1984. Metafiction. The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. London and New York: Routledge. Ill
