The Psychology of Jewish Identity in the Modern America in Philip Roth’s My Life as a Man

This study intends to examine the question of the subject and subjectivity and the perceptions of individuals’ identities and their capacities to resist the conditions of their ‘subjection’ that have been a central issue in Twentieth century literature and critical thought. This indeed is the case of the Jewish community living in the United States as reflected in the Jewish-American literature which deals with the question of identity and the enormous problems of acculturation and assimilation, and the radical questioning of the traditions and values of both cultures. Philip Roth’s novel My Life as a Man narrates the identity frustration of educated Jewish characters who are ambivalent about their past and present identities. The novel tries to make relationship between their past which exists in their minds with their current reality, but their attempts are unsuccessful because they are frustrated by the American society which is the opposite side of media manipulation. Roth’s characters are trapped in a Jewish society which has lost its status and dignity in the modern American society wrestling to find their own identity and place as a psychologically frustrated group. The study shows for Roth, it is not only the Jew's experience, but his/her imagination, his/her individual frame of understanding, that determines ethnic identity. In the end, Roth challenges the cohesion of the Jewish cultural text. He places himself in a house of mirrors, where life and art, self and group, Jewish reverence and Jewish rebellion, endlessly reflect off one another.

کلیدواژه ها:

psychological frustration ، self ، other ، Jewish-American identity ، American dream