Corpus Rothi: Une lecture de Philip Roth by Steven Sampson, and: Corpus Rothi II: Le Philip Roth tardif, de Pastorale américaine à Némésis by Steven Sampson (review)
2013; Purdue University Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1940-5278
Autores Tópico(s)Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
ResumoSteven Sampson. Corpus Rothi: Une lecture de Roth. Paris: Leo scheer, 2011. 152 pp. 15 Euros.Steven Sampson. Corpus Rothi II: Le Roth tardif, de Pastorale americaine a Nemesis. Paris: Leo scheer, 2012. 127 pp. 15 Euros.As critic Ross Posnock has argued, Roth's work invites us to read it as a single unfolding text, containing not only recurring themes and recurring pres- ence of Nathan Zuckerman, David Kepesh, and various versions of a character named Philip but also an ongoing internal commentary on mean- ing of work. From mockery of character Milton Appel, based on critic Irving Howe's early appraisal of Roth, to comic riffs on literary fame in Zuckerman Unbound, to unstable account-taking of The Facts, to Zuckerman's self-critical exploration of aftermath Carnovsky (Zucker- man's version of Portnoy's Complaint) this running commentary taunts Roth's would-be critics, suggesting that he has anticipated every angle, returned every possible volley, and had a bit of fun while doing it.In his two volume study of Roth's works, Steven Sampson, an American with a background in publishing who received a PhD at Paris VII and writes in French, stakes out a distinct response to this challenge: he tries to get in on fun. At start of second volume, he goes so far as to imagine a counter-interview with a phantom Roth who banters with him in a play on embedded dialogues from Exit Ghost. Elsewhere Sampson riffs on Roth's jokes, wordplay, and character names, includes epigraphs from Billy Idol, John Keats, and John Lennon, and offers up his own puns. He even stages a reading of When She Was Good around resonances on letter W.Like Roth, Sampson pays attention to his comic timing, maintaining a brisk and agreeable pace while discussing vast majority of Roth's books through mostly short impressionistic chapters that compose his two volumes. Not surprisingly, given his approach, there's a particular emphasis on those works with broadest comic strokes: Portnoy's Complaint gets a chapter in each volume, and there's an enjoyable section devoted to short piece I Always Wanted You to Admire My Fasting; or Looking at Kafka, which imagines writer's later years as a Hebrew School teacher in New Jersey. Like fans of director Sandy Bates in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (and perhaps not coincidently, Allen comes up several times here), Sampson is drawn to old funny ones.While Sampson is not concerned with situating his ideas in relation to other critics and their claims, he does put together a loose argument: namely, that Roth's works taken as a whole can be read as a kind of parody of New Testament, with Roth himself and his various stand-ins playing role of Christ, hounded by sexual persecutions before finally transforming into something of an artistic holy spirit. He playfully guides us through psycho-sexual march of Roth's recurring protagonists: Goodbye Columbus, Letting Go and When She Was Good are described as the seduction before orgasm of Portnoy. …
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